Management system for skin condition measurement analysis information and management method for skin condition measurement analysis information

ABSTRACT

Service can be offered free of charge and the cost of a skin condition measuring device can be reduced by effectively using data on the occasion of obtaining an analysis result by transmitting measurement data by the skin condition measuring device to a server of a company providing a service of analyzing the measurement data. When a request is made from a contractor client to acquire data registered in a measurement data database, authentication is executed based on a contractor ID input from the contractor client. Additionally, when the measurement data database is searched from a contractor database based on the contractor ID, a search level and an access level are obtained. The contractor client is permitted to search the measurement data database within a range of the search level and the access level.

This is a divisional application of application Ser. No. 14/379,086filed Aug. 15, 2014 which is a a 371 of international application ofPCT/JP2013/053763 filed Feb. 15, 2013, which claims priority toJP2012-265857 filed Dec. 4, 2012 and JP 2012-030020 Feb. 15, 2012. Thedisclosures of the prior applications are hereby incorporated byreference herein in their entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a management system for skin conditionmeasurement analysis information and a management method for skincondition measurement analysis information, in which measurement of skincondition and analysis on a measurement result are performed and alsodata of a measurement result and an analysis result (measurement dataand analysis result data) is managed by connecting a skin measurementapparatus to a mobile client (mobile terminal) connectable to a networkmainly by radio such as a smartphone, a mobile phone, and a tablet andtransmitting and receiving the data via the network.

BACKGROUND ART

Generally, in selling cosmetics and beauty treatment apparatuses forskin care (skin care device: beauty care device), a cosmetic for skincare, a facial wash, etc. and an apparatus for skin care correspondingto skin condition are sold after skin condition is grasped, for example,by magnifying and photographing the skin by using a camera for skin tofind out the skin condition. In this case, there is a case in which notonly a skin condition measuring device that magnifies and photographs askin surface (skin condition measuring unit: camera for skin) but alsovarious kinds of measuring instruments for skin, such as a measuringapparatus of measuring moisture content of the skin, are used, and theskin condition is sometimes determined from a magnified image of theskin and is sometimes determined from the moisture content of the skin.

In such a case, it has been necessary to go to a shop where themeasuring instrument for skin is provided to measure the skin conditionand a shop staff that can determine the skin condition from measurementresult and can give an advice on a skin care method based on the skincondition is available. However, regularly confirming the skin conditionhas been difficult because going to the shop is sometimes bothersome andbeing encouraged to purchase some products after receiving such serviceat the shop is annoying.

Thus, a skin condition measuring device as a peripheral device isconnected to a portable wireless terminal capable of accessing to theInternet via a wireless telephone line such as a mobile phone, asmartphone, and a tablet, or via other wireless communication lines.Alternatively, a built-in device such as a camera provided in theportable wireless terminal is used as at least a part of the skincondition measuring device. Then, there is a proposed system capable ofanalyzing the skin condition without going to cosmetics selling shops bytransmitting data of the measurement result of the skin conditionmeasuring device to a server of a vendor analyzing skin condition fromthe measurement result with use of the portable wireless terminal (seePatent Literatures 1 to 5). In this case, the server having received themeasurement data is to perform, for example, automatic analysis on themeasurement result and making an operator input the analysis result bydisplaying the measurement data.

In this case, the skin condition measuring device is needed to bepurchased, but the skin measurement can be regularly performed for arelatively short period without giving any burden to a user by using theabove-described system for skin measurement.

CITATION LIST Patent Literatures

Patent Literature 1: JP 2005-148797 A

Patent Literature 2: JP 2004-354207 A

Patent Literature 3: JP 2005-56165 A

Patent Literature 4: JP 2002-15068 A

Patent Literature 5: JP 2002-366651 A

SUMMARY OF INVENTION Technical Problem

By the way, unless the user uses the camera built inside the wirelessmobile terminal, basically it is necessary to purchase the skincondition measuring device such as a camera for skin. Further, sometimesthe user is charged for having the measurement result analyzed, and theuser might hesitate to find out the skin condition regularly.

Meanwhile, the server side to which the measurement data is sent canaccumulate the measurement data and the analysis result thereof, forexample. Additionally, to have the measurement data analyzed, memberregistration is sometimes required with a company that provides theservice, and on the occasion of member registration the user issometimes required to input personal information such as a name, anaddress, an e-mail address, a birthday, and sex, and is sometimesrequested to cooperate for answering a questionnaire.

In this case, when the number of users increases, the data such as themeasurement result of the skin and the analysis result thereof, andinformation from data at the time of member registration or from data ofthe questionnaire, such as age, sex, and a place of residence areaccumulated correlated to the data.

In the case where the accumulated data amount is increased, the data canbe analyzed and utilized for developing new skin care products; however,under the present circumstances, effective utilization of theaccumulated data is not sufficiently achieved by having the skinmeasurement result transmitted.

Additionally, considering a relation between the skin condition and thecosmetic for skin care (including facial wash relation), the user wishesto find out the relation between the using cosmetic for skin care andchange of the skin condition, i.e., whether the currently using cosmeticfor skin care has effect of improving the skin condition or not. Thatis, the user wishes to find out whether the currently using cosmetic issuitable for the user's skin or whether there is other cosmetic that ismore suitable for the user's skin. However, according to skin analysisin the above-described shop of the cosmetic company or the like, onlyinformation of cosmetics that are products of the cosmetic company canbe acquired.

From a standpoint of the cosmetic company, the information of the user'sskin condition can be acquired with use of the measuring instruments forskin at the shop as described above. In this case, customer informationsuch as the personal information including an address and a name, andinformation of the using cosmetic and an element that affects the skincan be acquired from questions, questionnaires, etc. made by the shopstaff to the user. Additionally, in the case where the user uses the owncompany's product, data such as influence on the skin in the case ofusing the own company's product can be acquired. However, there has beensuch a problem that it is not possible to acquire the data of the skincondition, etc. of a user who purchases the cosmetics at a shop notincluded in a sales system of the cosmetic company or by using mailorder, for example, without measuring the skin condition at the shop,etc. Additionally, it has been difficult to acquire information of theinfluence on the skin in the case of using products of other company andthe like.

Currently, there are domestically many cosmetic makers (here, the makersinclude distributor firms as well) and also there is new entry fromother industries, and additionally, there are users who use overseascosmetics, and a large number of cosmetics are traded in the marketplace. The user needs to select cosmetics suitable for the user fromamong the large number of cosmetics, and it is demanded that the usercan easily determine whether or not there is a certain extent of effectin the case of using the cosmetic.

Additionally, the cosmetic company can have advantages in businessstrategy on the products in the case where the cosmetic company canacquire the data of respective users, for example, what kind ofingredient is contained in a cosmetic when there is effect on therespective users having different skin types as the skin condition, andwhat kind of cosmetic is preferred by the users having the differentskin types. In product development, an information amount of clinicaltrials executed is limited, and in the case where feedback data isacquired from many users after selling the own company's products, thedata can be effectively used for next product development and further,in the case where information of products of other companies isacquired, the information can be further effectively used. Accordingly,the makers that are the cosmetics companies demand to acquire the dataof the users having used the cosmetics after sales.

The present invention is made in view of the above-describedcircumstances, and is directed to providing a management system for skincondition measurement analysis information and a management method forskin condition measurement analysis information, in which service can beoffered free of charge and the cost of a skin condition measuring devicecan be reduced by effectively using data such as received measurementdata in the case where an analysis result on the measurement data can beacquired by connecting the skin condition measuring device to a userclient (smartphone) and transmitting the measurement data by the skincondition measuring device to a server of a company providing a serviceof analyzing the measurement data.

Solution to Problem

A management system for skin condition measurement analysis informationaccording to the present invention includes:

a skin condition measuring device configured to measure skin condition;

a user client used by a user of the skin condition measuring device,connected to the skin condition measuring device so as to be able totransmit and receive data, and also connected to a network to transmitand receive data;

a data management server configured to be capable of performingtransmission and receipt of data with the user client via the network;

an analysis result outputting unit configured to receive analysis resultdata of the skin condition obtained by analyzing measurement datameasured by the skin condition measuring device, output the analysisresult data to be displayable on the user client, and also output theanalysis result data to be storable in the data management server; and

a contractor client configured to perform transmission and receipt ofdata with the data management server based on a contract for acquiringdata from the data management server,

wherein the user client includes:

a user data transmitting unit configured to transmit user data input bythe user and also including personal information of the user andincluding a unique and no duplicative ID for each user to the datamanagement server based on a request from the data management server;

a measurement data transmitting unit configured to transmit receivedmeasurement data and the input client ID to the data management serverwhen the measurement data measured by the skin condition measuringdevice is received from the skin condition measuring device; and

an analysis result display unit configured to display analysis resultdata when the analysis result data on the measurement data is receivedfrom the analysis result outputting unit,

wherein the data management server includes:

a user data database in which user data including the client ID receivedfrom each of a plurality of user clients is registered;

a measurement data database in which measurement data received from theuser client, analysis result data received from the analysis resultoutputting unit, accompanying data excluding predetermined personalinformation from the user data, and the client ID are registeredcorrelated one another, and also at least the measurement data and theanalysis result data are registered as a history based on an acquisitiontime of the data;

a contractor database in which a contractor 1D set for each of thecontractors is registered; and

a data providing unit configured to collate a contractor ID input fromthe contractor client with the contractor database when a request ismade from the contractor client to acquire data registered in themeasurement data database, and transmit the data registered in themeasurement data database to a contractor client, and

wherein the contractor client includes:

a data requesting unit configured to transmit the contractor ID and alsorequest data registered in the measurement data database to the datamanagement server; and

a receiving and storing unit configured to receive and store datatransmitted from the data management server based on a request of thedata requesting unit.

According to the above-described configuration, the measurement data ofthe skin condition measured by the skin condition measuring device is tobe transmitted to the data management server via the network by a usermobile terminal.

On this occasion, the user needs to set, for example, a client ID andinputs various kinds of data in accordance with the request from thedata management server. On this occasion, for example, a name, anaddress, various kinds of phone numbers, an e-mail address, etc. may beinput as predetermined personal information that is the user data.

Additionally, credit card information for settlement may be included asthe predetermined personal information in the case of enabling purchaseof products and service in the management system for skin conditionmeasurement analysis information. Additionally, information such asusing cosmetics, skin care articles, and supplements may be optionallyinput as the user data based on the request from the data managementserver as a questionnaire or the like.

In the data management server, the user data is registered in the userdata database in the case where the user data is input from the userclient. In the user data database, the user data can be retrieved usingthe client ID.

Additionally, the user client, for example, executes measurement of theskin condition by the skin condition measuring device connected based onthe user's operation and obtains the measurement data, and thentransmits the measurement data to the data management server togetherwith the client ID.

The analysis result data obtained based on the measurement data isreceived by the analysis result outputting unit, and transmitted to theuser client from the analysis result outputting unit, for example, viathe data management server, e-mail, or the like, and the analysis resultdata can be viewed at the user client. Note that the analysis result canbe acquired by analyzing the measurement data, using various kinds ofknown skin analysis methods.

Additionally, the measurement data, the analysis result data, and theaccompanying data excluding the predetermined personal information fromthe user data are registered correlated to the client ID in themeasurement data database.

In the accompanying data excluding the predetermined personalinformation from the user data, the predetermined personal informationis basically information with which an individual is likely to bespecified, for example, a name, an address, a phone number, an e-mailaddress, credit card information, and so on. The accompanying dataexcluding the predetermined personal information from the user dataincludes, for example, data of answers to questionnaires, such as usingcosmetics, skin care articles (body oil, bath powder, etc.), skin caredevices (beauty devices), regularly taking supplement, and modifiedpersonal information that cannot specify an individual, such as a placeof residence (a rough address such as a prefecture or a city), a roughage (for example, teenager, twenties, thirties, etc.), and date that canbe obtained on the occasion of measurement, such as a measurement dateand time.

Here, the user can repeatedly execute measurement and analysis on theskin condition, and for example, the measurement data and the analysisresult data can be read out from the measurement data database inchronological order based on the measurement date and time of themeasurement data and a receiving date and time, etc. at the datamanagement server.

For example, many users who use the service of analyzing the measurementdata of the skin condition are obtained by offering the service ofanalyzing the measurement data of the skin condition free of charge, andthus the measurement data of many users is accumulated in themeasurement data database, and also, measurement data in chronologicalorder is likely to be acquired by having each of the users repeatedlyuse the analysis service.

In this case, a maker developing various kinds of cosmetics and skincare articles can utilize the measurement data of the skin conditionaccumulated in the measurement data server for product development, skinresearch, and so on. Additionally, in the measurement data server, theaccompanying data excluding the predetermined personal information fromthe user data input by the user is correlated to the measurement data byusing the client ID. Here, in the case of having the user input, forexample, the using cosmetics, skin care articles, etc. by a request fromthe data management server side on the occasion of inputting the userdata, more useful data can be obtained in comparison to the case ofobtaining only the measurement data.

According to the present invention, a contract enables the measurementdata, the analysis result data, and the accompanying data to be browsed.On this occasion, a kind of the accompanying data that can be browsedmay be determined for each contractor ID of each contractor based on thecontract. In the contractor database, a kind of the accompanying datathat can be browsed from the contractor client corresponding to eachcontractor ID may be registered correlated to the contractor ID. Thus,on the occasion of collating the contractor ID of the contractor client,the kind of the accompanying data that can be browsed at the contractorclient is set and only the kind of the accompanying data correlated tothe contractor ID can be browsed at the contractor client.

In this case, the kind of the accompanying data which the contractor hasbrowsed is to be determined at the time of contract. On this occasion,plural kinds of the accompanying data may be made browsable or all kindsof the accompanying data may be made browsable.

On this occasion, the kinds of the accompanying data are classified intoranks and higher-rank accompanying data may be made browsable as abrowse level determined at the time of contract becomes higher.

In the data management server, when a request for browsing data isreceived from the contractor client together with the contractor ID, thecontractor database may be searched by using the contractor ID, and thekinds of the accompanying data, measurement data, and analysis resultdata may be transmitted to the contractor client to be browsable basedon the kind of the accompanying data correlated to the contractor ID.

For example, the contractor selects a necessary kind of the accompanyingdata from various kinds of the accompanying data at the time ofcontract, and makes the contract with an operator of the data managementserver. On this occasion, for example, the contract is made to pay anextra fee corresponding to each kind. Thus, the contractor can obtainthe useful accompanying data.

Thus, the operator of the data management server (e.g., a maker anddistributor firm of the skin condition measuring device) can gaincorresponding price for browsing of the analysis result data,measurement data, and accompanying data on the occasion of contract withthe contractor (e.g., a cosmetic company such as maker and distributorfirm of cosmetics, a maker and distributor firm of skin care articles, amaker and distributor firm of beauty devices).

By such a price, operating cost for the data management server andprofits can be obtained without charging any fee to the user. Sincethere is no charge to the user, sales of the skin condition measuringdevice can be promoted and also analysis on the measurement data byusing the skin condition measuring device can be promoted. Thus, thedata in the measurement data database can be enriched. Thus, the numberof contractors wishing to use the analysis result data, the measurementdata, and the accompanying data can be increased, and revenue growth canbe achieved.

According to the above-described configuration of the present invention,preferably, in the measurement data database, the measurement dataincluding a plurality of data blocks, the analysis result data includinga plurality of data blocks, and the accompanying data including aplurality of data blocks are registered correlated one another, and alsorespective search items are set for at least a part of the data blocks,and the data of the data blocks set with the search items is narroweddown by inputting a conditions in the search items, and the dataassociated with the narrowed-down data can be retrieved,

in the contractor database, the search items are classified into aplurality of levels and registered as a search item for each searchlevel, and also the data blocks to which the data that can be output asa search result belongs is classified into a plurality of levels andregistered as a data block for each access level, and the search leveland the access level are registered correlated to the contractor ID, and

the data management server searches the contractor database by using thecontractor ID input from the contractor client and extracts the searchlevel and the access level correlated to the contractor ID with respectto the contractor client, and includes:

a search limiting unit configured to permit searching the measurementdata database by inputting a search condition from the contractor clientonly with respect to the search item classified into the extractedsearch level, and permit outputting, to the contractor client, only theretrieved data belonging to the data block classified into the extractedaccess level among the data blocks; and

a search display unit configured to display, at the contractor client,the search items classified into the extracted search level based on thecontractor ID by the search limiting unit such that a search item towhich a search condition is input can be selected from the search items,and display the data blocks classified into the extracted access levelbased on the contractor ID by the search limiting unit such that thedata block to which data that outputs a search result belongs can beselected from the blocks.

According to the above-described configuration, for example, the datablocks of the data that can output the search item and search result inthe measurement data database is to be limited by the search level andthe access level; however, the contractor (a secondary user ofmeasurement data and analysis result data) can retrieve necessary dataand reduce expense by determining and making a contract for the searchlevel and access level that are considered to be necessary by thecontactor in the case where usage fee is varied depending on the searchlevel and the access level. Additionally, since only the search itemcorresponding to the search level is displayed to the contractor clientin a selectable manner, and also only the data blocks to which theacquirable data belongs are displayed in a selectable manner, there isno case of inputting a condition in a search item that cannot beretrieved based on the search level or requesting output of the datathat cannot be output based on the access level. Hence, the contractorcan execute efficient search.

Additionally, according to the above-described configuration of thepresent invention, preferably, cosmetic data that is input from the userclient as the accompanying data and can specify a cosmetic used by theuser of the skin condition measuring device is registered correlated toa use time of the cosmetic in the measurement data database, and

analysis result data of the acquisition time corresponding to the usetime correlated to the cosmetic data can be retrieved from thecontractor client together with the cosmetic data.

According to the above-described configuration, the contractor clientcan examine, for example, a relation between the using cosmetic and theanalysis result data of the skin condition. For example, it can be findout that the skin condition of a user using a cosmetic does not changewhile the skin condition of other user using a different cosmetic isgradually improved or the like. That is, the contractor such as acosmetic company can confirm effects of the own company products andinvestigate effects of other company products.

In this case, since as the number of users increases, many samples canbe obtained, more detailed investigation can be executed. Additionally,in the case where a generation, a place of residence, a frequency of useof a cosmetic, a use amount of a cosmetic and the like are found out asthe accompanying data, investigation corresponding to the user'scircumstance, use condition of the cosmetic can be also executed. Thatis, further useful data for product development can be obtained comparedto the case of the data g specifying the using cosmetic in addition tothe analysis result on the measurement data of the skin condition.

Note that the measurement data corresponding to the using cosmetic maybe obtained in addition to the analysis result data.

Additionally, preferably, measurement of the skin condition and analysison the measurement data are regularly and continuously executed by auser.

Additionally, according to the above-described configuration of thepresent invention, preferably,

in the measurement data database, cosmetic data that is received fromthe user client and also can specify a cosmetic used by the user of theskin condition measuring device is registered correlated to a use timeof the cosmetic and the client ID input from the user client, inaddition to the analysis result data acquired for each measurement alongchronological order by the skin condition measuring device and alsoregistered correlated to an acquisition time as the history based on theacquisition time of the analysis result data,

the user client is capable of searching the measurement data databasefor the analysis result data and the cosmetic data correlated to theclient ID input from the user client, in conformity with the acquisitiontime of the analysis result data and the use time of the cosmetic, and

the analysis result data correlated to the retrieved acquisition timeand the cosmetic data correlated to the use time which is same as theacquisition time can be displayed in parallel, and also at least one ofa chronological display in which details of change in the analysisresult data along chronological order can be recognized by arranging inthe chronological order of the acquisition time and displaying theanalysis result data at the acquisition time included in a periodselected by the user; and a comparative display in which a difference ofthe analysis result data with the acquisition time can be compared bysimultaneously displaying the analysis result data at a plurality of theacquisition times selected by the user is displayable.

According to the above-described configuration, in the case where theuser continuously measures the skin condition and acquires the analysisresult data based on the measurement data obtained by the measurement,the cosmetic data indicating the using cosmetic and the analysis resultdata of analyzing the measured skin condition can be viewed at the sametime, and also details of change in the skin condition during a selectedperiod can be recognized by viewing the chronological display. That is,the currently using cosmetic and the change with time in the skincondition can be recognized, and it becomes possible to determinewhether the skin condition is good or not, whether the skin conditiontends to improve or not, and the like while the cosmetic is being used.

Additionally, it becomes possible to determine a difference of the skincondition in the case of continuously using the same cosmetic or thelike by viewing the comparative display and thus comparing the analysisresults of a plurality of acquisition times selected. For example,whether or not the skin condition is better than before can bedetermined by viewing and comparing the analysis result data at thelatest acquisition time with the analysis result data in any periodbefore the present time. For example, the chronological display isespecially effective for determining change in the skin condition for arelatively short period and the comparative display is especiallyeffective for evaluating change in the skin condition for a relativelylong period.

A management method for skin condition measurement analysis informationaccording to the present invention is a management method for skincondition measurement analysis information executed in a managementsystem for skin condition measurement analysis information thatincludes:

a skin condition measuring device configured to measure skin condition;

a user client used by a user of the skin condition measuring device,connected to the skin condition measuring device so as to be able totransmit and receive data, and also connected to a network so as totransmit and receive data;

a data management server configured to be capable of performingtransmission and receipt of data with the user client via the network;

an analysis result outputting unit configured to receive analysis resultdata of the skin condition obtained by analyzing measurement datameasured by the skin condition measuring device, output the analysisresult data to be displayable on the user client, and also output theanalysis result data to be storable in the data management server; and

a contractor client configured to perform transmission and receipt ofdata with the data management server based on a contract to acquire datafrom the data management server,

wherein the user client executes:

a user data transmitting step of transmitting user data input by a userand also including personal information of a user and including a uniqueand no duplicative ID for each user to the data management server basedon a request from the data management server;

a measurement data transmitting step of transmitting receivedmeasurement data and the client ID to the data management server whenthe measurement data measured by the skin condition measuring device isreceived from the skin condition measuring device; and

an analysis result displaying step of displaying analysis result datawhen the analysis result data on the measurement data is received fromthe analysis result outputting unit,

wherein the data management server executes:

a user data registering step of registering user data that including theclient ID received from each of a plurality of user clients in a userdata database;

a measurement data registering step of registering the measurement datareceived from the user client, analysis result data received from theanalysis result outputting unit and, accompanying data excludingpredetermined personal information from the user data, and the client IDin a measurement data database, correlated one another, and alsoregistering on the occasion of registration at least the measurementdata and the analysis result data as a history based on an acquisitiontime of the data in the measurement data database; and

a data providing step of collating a contractor ID input from thecontractor client with the contractor database when acquisition of dataregistered in the measurement data database is requested from thecontractor client, and transmitting the data registered in themeasurement data database to a contractor client, and

wherein the contractor client executes:

a data requesting step of transmitting the contractor ID and alsorequesting the data management server for data registered in themeasurement data database; and

a receiving and storing step of receiving and storing data transmittedfrom the data management server based on a request from the datarequesting unit.

According to the above-described configuration of the present invention,preferably, the data management server is capable of:

narrowing down data of data blocks set with search items by inputtingconditions in the search items and retrieving the data associated withthe narrowed-down data from the measurement data database in which themeasurement data including the plurality of data blocks, the analysisresult data including the plurality of data blocks, and the accompanyingdata including the plurality of data blocks are registered correlatedone another, and also the respective search items are set for at least apart of the data blocks; and

extracting a search level and an access level correlated to thecontractor ID by searching, using the contractor ID input from thecontractor client, the contractor database in which the search items areclassified into a plurality of levels and registered as a search itemfor each search level, and also the data blocks to which data that canbe output as a search result belongs is classified into a plurality oflevels and registered as a data block for each access level, and thesearch level and the access level are registered correlated to thecontractor ID, and

wherein the data management server executes:

a search limiting step of permitting searching the measurement datadatabase by inputting a search condition from the contractor client onlyfor the search item classified into the extracted search level, andpermitting outputting, to the contractor client, only the retrieved databelonging to the data block classified into the extracted access levelamong the data blocks; and

a search displaying step of displaying, on the contractor client, thesearch items classified into the extracted search level based on thecontractor ID by the search limiting unit such that a search item towhich a search condition is input can be selected from the search items,and displaying the data blocks classified into the extracted accesslevel based on the contractor ID by the search limiting unit such that adata block to which data that outputs a search result belongs can beselected from the blocks.

Additionally, according to the above-described configuration of thepresent invention, preferably, the contractor client searches themeasurement data database in which cosmetic data that is input from theuser client as the accompanying data and can specify a cosmetic used bythe user of the skin condition measuring device is registered correlatedto a use time of the cosmetic, for analysis result data of theacquisition time corresponding to the use time correlated to thecosmetic data together with the cosmetic data.

Additionally, according to the above-described configuration of thepresent invention, preferably, the user client executes:

retrieving, from the measurement data database in which cosmetic datathat is received from the user client and also can specify a cosmeticused by the user of the skin condition measuring device is registeredcorrelated to a use time of the cosmetic and the client ID input fromthe user client, in addition to the analysis result data acquired foreach measurement along chronological order by the skin conditionmeasuring device and also registered correlated to the acquisition timeas the history based on the acquisition time of the analysis resultdata, the cosmetic data and the analysis result data correlated to theclient ID input from the user client, in conformity with the acquisitiontime of the analysis result data and the use time of the cosmetic; and

displaying the analysis result data correlated to the retrievedacquisition time and the cosmetic data correlated to the use time whichis same as the acquisition time are displayed in parallel, and alsodisplaying at least one of a chronological display in which details ofchange in the analysis result data along chronological order can berecognized by arranging in the chronological order of the acquisitiontime and displaying the analysis result data at the acquisition timeincluded in a period selected by the user; and a comparative display inwhich a difference of the analysis result data with the acquisition timecan be compared by simultaneous displaying the analysis result data at aplurality of the acquisition times selected by the user.

According to the above-described management method for skin conditionmeasurement analysis information, the effects same as those of thecorresponding management system for skin condition measurement analysisinformation can be obtained.

Additionally, it is also possible to apply following configurations tothe present invention.

For example, in the management system for skin condition measurementanalysis information according to the present invention, the user clientmay include:

a data browsing requesting unit configured to transmit the client ID andalso request transmission of respective data stored correlated to theclient ID from the measurement data database or the user data database;and

a data displaying unit configured to display the transmitted data whenthe data requested by the data browsing requesting unit is transmittedfrom the data management server, and

the data management server may include a data transmitting unit for databrowsing configured to transmit, to the user client corresponding to theclient ID transmitted from the data browsing requesting unit, the dataregistered in the measurement data database or the user data databaseand also correlated to the client ID transmitted from the user client,based on the request of the data browsing requesting unit.

According to the above-described configuration of the present invention,the data management server may extract, in response to a request fromthe user client, two or more pieces of the measurement data and/or theanalysis result data of different acquisition times from the measurementdata and/or the analysis result data stored in the measurement datadatabase as the history based on the acquisition times, and transmit theextracted data to the user client, and

the user client may include a comparative display unit configured todisplay the measurement data and/or the analysis result data of thedifferent acquisition times in order of acquisition times such that thedata can be compared each other.

Additionally, according to the above-described configuration of thepresent invention, the skin condition measuring device may be providedwith a device authentication storage unit configured to store anauthentication character string for authenticating the skin conditionmeasuring device and also output the stored authentication characterstring outside,

the user client may include a device authentication transmitting unitconfigured to transmit the authentication character string output fromthe connected skin condition measuring device to the data managementserver, and

the data management server may include:

an authenticating unit configured to authenticate the authenticationcharacter string; and

a non-authenticated device excluding unit configured to execute controlso as not to output the analysis result data of the measurement datatransmitted from the user client having the authentication characterstring that has not been authenticated by the authenticating unit.

Additionally, according to the above-described configuration of thepresent invention, the skin condition measuring device may be a camerafor skin configured to take a close-up photo of skin and output imagedata as the measurement data,

the measurement data transmitting unit in the user client may transmitthe image data output from the skin condition measuring device to thedata management server,

the image data may be registered in the data analysis database as themeasurement data,

the data management server may include:

a calibration unit configured to generate calibration data ofcalibrating an individual difference of the skin condition measuringdevice based on the image data photographed by the skin conditionmeasuring device in accordance with a predetermined condition; and

a calibration database configured to register the calibration datagenerated by the calibration unit and the authentication characterstring correlated each other, and

the analysis result acquiring unit may be configured to acquire thecalibration data from the calibration database based on theauthentication character string, calibrate the image data by thecalibration data, or calibrate the skin condition measuring device basedon the calibration data.

Additionally, according to the above-described configuration of thepresent invention, a skin care device that can be controlled from theuser client by being connected to the user client may be provided,

the user client or the data management server may include:

a skin care database in which a control method for the skin care deviceis registered, correlated to the analysis result data;

a skin care data acquiring unit configured to acquire the analysisresult data from the measurement data database based on the client IDoutput from the user client connected to the skin care device; and

a control method acquiring unit configured to acquire the control methodfor the skin care device from the skin care database based on theanalysis result data acquired by the skin care data acquiring unit, and

the user client may control the skin care device based on the controlmethod acquired by the control method acquiring unit.

Additionally, according to the above-described configuration of thepresent invention, the user client may include a control data storagearea of storing the control data for controlling the skin care deviceand also control the skin care device based on the control data; and

the data management server may include a control data updating unitconfigured to rewrite the control data stored in the control datastorage area of the user client based on the control method.

Additionally, according to the management method for skin conditionmeasurement analysis information of the present invention, the userclient may execute:

a data browsing requesting step of transmitting the client ID and alsorequesting transmission of respective data stored correlated to theclient ID from the measurement data database or the user data database;and

a data displaying step of displaying the transmitted data when the datarequested in the data browsing requesting step is transmitted from thedata management server, and

the data management server may execute a data transmitting step for databrowsing of transmitting, to the user client corresponding to the clientID transmitted in the data browsing requesting step, the data registeredin the measurement data database or the user data database and alsocorrelated to the client ID transmitted from the user client, based onthe request in the data browsing requesting step.

According to the above-described configuration of the present invention,the data management server may extract, in response to a request fromthe user client, two or more pieces of the measurement data and/or theanalysis result data of different acquisition times from the measurementdata and/or the analysis result data stored in the measurement datadatabase as the history based on the acquisition times, and transmit theextracted data to the user client, and

the user client may execute a comparative displaying step of displayingthe measurement data and/or the analysis result data of the differentacquisition times in order of acquisition times such that the data canbe compared each other.

Additionally, according to the above-described configuration of thepresent invention, the skin condition measuring device may be providedwith a device authentication storage unit configured to store anauthentication character string for authenticating the skin conditionmeasuring device and also output the stored authentication characterstring outside,

the user client may executes a device authentication transmitting stepof transmitting the authentication character string output from theconnected skin condition measuring device to the data management server,and

the data management server may include:

an authentication step of authenticating the authentication characterstring; and

a non-authenticated device excluding unit configured to execute controlso as not to output the analysis result data of the measurement datatransmitted from the user client having the authentication characterstring that has not been authenticated by the authenticating unit.

Additionally, according to the above-described configuration of thepresent invention, the skin condition measuring device may be a camerafor skin configured to take a close-up photo of skin, and output imagedata as the measurement data,

in the measurement data transmitting step in the user client, the imagedata output from the skin condition measuring device may be transmittedto the data management server,

the image data may be registered in the data analysis database as themeasurement data,

the data management server may execute:

a calibration step of generating calibration data of calibrating anindividual difference of the skin condition measuring device based onthe image data photographed by the skin condition measuring device inaccordance with a predetermined condition; and

a calibration registering step of registering the calibration datagenerated in the calibration step and the authentication characterstring in a calibration database, correlated each other, and

in the analysis result acquiring step, the calibration data may beacquired from the calibration database based on the authenticationcharacter string, and calibration of the image data by the calibrationdata or calibration of the skin condition measuring device based on thecalibration data may be executed.

The management system for skin condition measurement analysisinformation may include a skin care device that can be controlled fromthe user client by being connected to the user client,

the user client or the data management server may execute:

a skin care data acquiring step of acquiring the analysis result datafrom the measurement data database based on the client ID output fromthe user client connected to the skin care device; and

a control method acquiring step of acquiring a control method for theskin device from the skin care database in which the control method forthe skin care device is registered correlated to the analysis resultdata, based on the analysis result data acquired in the skin care dataacquiring step, and

the user client may execute a skin care controlling step of controllingthe skin care device based on the control method acquired in the controlmethod acquiring step.

The user client may include a control data storage area of storingcontrol data for controlling the skin care device and also control theskin care device based on the control data, and

the data management server may execute a control data updating step ofrewriting the control data stored in the control data storage area ofthe user client based on the control method.

According to the above-described management system for skin conditionmeasurement analysis information and the management method for skincondition measurement analysis information, since the measurement dataand the analysis result data are stored in the measurement data databaseas the history according to the acquisition times of the measurementdata and the analysis result data as described above, and theaccompanying data is stored together with the data, the user can viewthe measurement data and the analysis result data as data inchorological order. In this case, when various kinds of skin care arebeing executed, whether the skin condition is getting better, or doesnot change, or is deteriorating can be determined to be used fordetermining whether to continue or change the current skin care.

Additionally, the user can confirm contents of the user data database.Therefore, after confirmation, the user data can also be changed byinputting the user data, using the user data transmitting unit.Additionally, the using cosmetics and the skin care articles as thecontents of previous questionnaire may be changed by answering a newquestionnaire, for example.

Note that there is no means of transmitting the user data database tothe contractor client, what is browsable at the contractor client is themeasurement data in the measurement data database and the permitted kindof accompanying data, no data in the user data database is transmittedto the contractor client, and the predetermined personal information isto be protected. Note that, preferably, the date in the user datadatabase is protected by using a known security method.

In skin condition measuring device, the authentication character stringis stored in the device authentication storage unit thereof, and in thedata management server, the skin condition measuring device can beauthenticated using the authentication character string in the casewhere the authentication character string of the skin conditionmeasuring device is transmitted via a user form client.

For example, in the case where the data management server is operated bya maker or distributor firm of a skin condition measuring device, theoperating company can set the data management server such that theanalysis result data for the measurement data, namely, the serviceprovided from a data analysis management system, cannot be output from adevice other than the skin condition measuring device the operatingcompany manufactures or sells.

In the case where the service of analyzing the measurement data isoffered free of charge as described above, a person who try to sell theskin condition measuring device by utilizing this analysis servicewithout permission is likely to appear; however, by executingauthentication with the authentication character string as describedabove, any device other than the skin condition measuring device as alegitimate product capable of analyzing the measurement data in the datamanagement server cannot be used.

Note that the authentication character string is generally called aserial, for example, is a character string having a predetermined numberof characters, and among the character strings having the predeterminednumber of characters, only a character string preliminarily complyingwith predetermined conditions becomes the authentication characterstring, and when a character string is set randomly, such a characterstring has extremely low possibility to be authenticated.

Note that a method of inhibiting output of the analysis result data maybe any method as far as the analysis result data is not output, and forexample, in the case where authentication is not successful on theoccasion where the authentication character string is input from theuser form client to the data management server, communication with theuser form client may be inhibited, or receipt of the measurement datamay be stopped, or acquisition of the analysis result data may bestopped although the measurement data is received, or transmitting theacquired analysis result data may be stopped although the analysisresult data for the measurement data is acquired.

Additionally, in the case where the measurement data is image data bythe camera for skin, each skin condition measuring device is likely tohave different brightness, color tone, etc. depending on individualdifference or the like. In this case, an error on the occasion ofanalyzing the image data is likely to become large. In such a case, thecalibration data for correcting and standardizing the individualdifference or the like is stored correlated to each authenticationcharacter string in the calibration database, and thus the image datacan be calibrated and the analysis result data can be obtained from thedata analysis database by the calibrated image data when the image datais input to the data management server together with the authenticationcharacter string via the user form client. Additionally, when there isan error in brightness, brightness of a light provided in the camera forskin may be calibrated.

Thus, a subtle difference in color tone of skin can be clearly analyzed.Note that the image data photographed in accordance with thepredetermined condition is, for example, image data for which the colorcan be calibrated by pressing a predetermined color pattern (calibrationpattern) against the camera for skin at the time of photographing.

The user client can be connected to the skin care device (skin aestheticdevice (skin beauty device)) besides the skin condition measuringdevice, and the connected skin care device can be controlled from theuser client, including setting change and the like. For example, in thecase where operation can be finished in a preset period after operationstart or various kinds of levels such as strength can be set, it ispreferable that setting and changing the levels be controllable.

Here, analysis result data correlated to a client ID registered in themeasurement data database of the above-described data management serveris acquired, and a control method correlated to the analysis result datais acquired from the skin care database. The control method istransmitted to the user client, and an operation time of the skin caredevice connected to the user client, various kinds of setting levels,and the like can be controlled. In the case where the skin condition isindicated by, for example, step-by-step levels (from bad to goodcondition) as the analysis result data, control is executed such that inthe case where the level is high (skin condition is good), the operationtime is made shorter, and in the case where the level is low (skincondition is bad), the operation time is made longer.

By controlling the skin care device in this way, skin care correspondingto the skin condition can be executed. Additionally, efficient use timefor the skin care and efficient use of power source such as a batterycan be achieved.

Additionally, the skin care device may be optionally controlled by theuser operating the user client. For example, the user may set outputlevels (frequency, voltage, current) of the skin care device. In thiscase, control data set by the user is stored in a predetermined storagearea in the user client. In contrast, more effective setting can beexecuted by rewriting the control data stored in the storage area on thedata management server side. For example, for a person who uses the skincare device with the output lower than suitable output because theperson feels pain or the like when the output is high, the datamanagement server rewrites the control data stored in the user client togradually raise the output, and thus the skin care device can be used atthe suitable output while suppressing the occurrence of pain.

In the data management server, use history data is registered correlatedto the client ID in the measurement data database.

Therefore, based on the client ID, the use history data, the measurementdata, and the analysis result data can be viewed and effect of improvingthe skin condition by the skin care device can be confirmed.

Additionally, the management system for skin condition measurementanalysis information and the management method for skin conditionmeasurement analysis information may be configured as follows.

For example, the management system for skin condition measurementanalysis information and the management method for skin conditionmeasurement analysis information may include:

a mobile terminal (user client) capable of connecting the managementsystem for skin condition measurement analysis information to a networkvia wireless communication; and

a data management server connected so as to be able to mutually executetransmission and receipt of information with the mobile terminal via thenetwork, and

may include:

a skin condition measuring unit (skin condition measuring device)connected to the mobile terminal or partially provided in the mobileterminal and capable of measuring a skin condition of a user and storinga measurement result in the mobile terminal;

a cosmetic specific information inputting unit provided in the mobileterminal and configured to enable the user to input cosmetic specificinformation that can specify a cosmetic used by the user;

a skin condition analyzing unit provided in the mobile terminal and/orthe data management server, analyzing the measurement result of the skincondition by the skin condition measuring unit based on comparisonbetween the measurement result and accumulated plurality of measurementresults of skin condition classified into a plurality of ranks, anddetermining which one of the plurality of ranks the measured skincondition belongs to as an analysis result;

an analysis result storage unit provided in the data management serverand storing along chronological order the ranks determined for eachmeasurement along the chronological order by the skin conditionmeasuring unit;

a using cosmetic specific information storage unit provided in the datamanagement server and storing the cosmetic specific information input bythe cosmetic specific information inputting unit, correlated to a usetime by the user of the cosmetic;

a history outputting unit provided in the data management server andtransmitting, to the mobile terminal, the analysis result stored in theanalysis result storage unit and the cosmetic specific informationstored in the using cosmetic specific information storage unit inresponse to a request from the mobile terminal based on the useroperation; and

a history display unit provided in the mobile terminal and displayingthe analysis result transmitted by the history outputting unitcorrelated to the chronological order and also displaying the cosmeticspecific information that can specify the use time correlated to thechronological order.

According to the above-described configuration, the user can find outchange in the analysis results for the measurement result of the skincondition with passage of a period and the cosmetic used during theperiod by regularly executing measurement of the skin condition and alsoby inputting information based on which a use period of a used cosmeticor a use period can be calculated and thus the user can easily determinethe presence or absence of the effect of the cosmetic (mainly a cosmeticfor skin care). As a result, the user is highly likely to measure theskin condition and input the using cosmetic actively, and data of theskin condition of the user and data of the used cosmetic is to beaccumulated in the data management server.

The data can be, for example, effectively utilized for cosmeticdevelopment, and particularly as the number of persons who measure theskin condition increases, added value is likely to become high.Additionally, the user who frequently measures the skin condition andinputs the cosmetic may, for example, look at the screen display of themobile terminal more often, and in the case of displaying advertisementon the screen of the mobile terminal, an advertisement effect becomeshigh. Additionally, a relation between the skin condition and the usingcosmetic can be easily found out as described above, and therefore, forexample, when the skin condition is not so good, a propaganda effect ofthe cosmetic products increases.

Here, the ranks of skin condition is ranks obtained by ranking the skincondition from bad condition to good condition based on the measurementresults of the skin condition already accumulated, and for example, goodor bad skin condition may be converted into a numerical value andexpressed in a score from zero to a predetermined value. Further, theskin condition may be indicated by age correlated to average skincondition in each age (generation) from the accumulated measurementresults. After converting the skin condition of the user who executesfrequent measurement into a numerical value as the score or the like,the skin condition may be expressed by, for example, a deviation valueas a result of statistical processing.

According to the above-described configuration, the data managementserver may include a registered cosmetic storage unit in which cosmeticinformation of each of the cosmetics including the cosmetic specificinformation that can specify each of the cosmetics is registered,correlated to one another for each of the cosmetics and from which, inthe case where the cosmetic information is received from the mobileterminal, the cosmetic specific information related to or identical tothe received cosmetic information can be extracted, and

the cosmetic specific information inputting unit may include an inputassisting unit that assists a user to be able to input the cosmeticinformation including the cosmetic specific information before the userdeterminately inputs the cosmetic specific information; the inputcosmetic information to be transmitted to the data management serverwhen the cosmetic information is input; and the user to determinatelyinput the cosmetic specific information by displaying the transmittedcosmetic specific information selectable by the user in the case wherethe cosmetic specific information related to or identical to thetransmitted cosmetic information is extracted from the registeredcosmetic storage unit and transmitted to the mobile terminal.

According to the above-described configuration, data input is simplifiedon the occasion of inputting data of the using cosmetic. That is, sincethe cosmetic data is already registered, it becomes possible to easilyextract and input the using cosmetic by a key word or the like.Additionally, confirmation is possible. For example, in the case where acosmetic is registered by inputting a bar code, a correct product namemay be unknown, but the product name of the cosmetic can be found out byretrieving the data registered using the bar code. Additionally, whenthe cosmetic is not at hand, it also becomes possible to input the usingcosmetic not clearly remembered.

Additionally, according to the above-described configuration, the mobileterminal or the data management server may include a non-registrationdetermining unit configured to determine that the cosmetic specificinformation of the cosmetic corresponding to the cosmetic information isnot registered in the registered cosmetic storage unit in the case wherethe cosmetic specific information related to or identical to thecosmetic information cannot be extracted from the registered cosmeticstorage unit on the occasion where the cosmetic information istransmitted from the mobile terminal to the data management server,

the mobile terminal may include a non-registered cosmetic specificinformation inputting unit configured to enable the user to input thenon-registered cosmetic specific information in the case where thecosmetic is determined to be non-registered by the non-registrationdetermining unit, and also transmit the cosmetic specific information tothe data management server when the cosmetic specific information isinput, and

the data management server may include:

a cosmetic maker contact information storage unit in which the cosmeticspecific information and cosmetic maker contact information specified bythe cosmetic specific information are correlated;

a temporary registration unit configured to temporarily register thetransmitted cosmetic specific information in the registered cosmeticstorage unit in the case where the cosmetic specific information istransmitted from the non-registered cosmetic specific informationinputting unit;

a communication assisting unit configured to extract the contactinformation from the cosmetic maker contact information storage unitbased on the cosmetic specific information temporarily registered in thetemporary registration unit, and assist a contact with the contactinformation to request for proper registration in the registeredcosmetic storage unit of the temporarily-registered cosmetic informationof the cosmetic correlated to the cosmetic specific informationtemporarily registered in the temporary registration unit, and

a registration permitting unit configured to permit a contacted personin charge of the cosmetic maker to register the cosmetic information inthe registered cosmetic storage unit.

According to the above-described configuration, as for a cosmetic notregistered, the user is to find out that the cosmetic is anon-registered cosmetic by attempting to input data of thenon-registered cosmetic. On this occasion, the cosmetic is to betemporarily registered by inputting a product name or a product code(JAN code) that can specify the cosmetic in the case where the cosmeticto be registered is not registered. That is, it becomes possible to havethe user find the non-registered cosmetic and also temporarily registerthe non-registered cosmetic.

In this state, for example, in the case where the maker contactinformation is known based on the information that can specify theabove-described cosmetic, a request can be made to the maker contactinformation to input various kinds of information of the cosmetictemporarily registered in the data management server. Therefore, anadministrator or an operator of the data management server can have theuser and the person in charge of the maker execute processing ofinvestigating a newly released cosmetic and registering the informationof the cosmetic in the data management server. Thus, management work forthe data management server can be reduced and management cost can bereduced.

Additionally, according to the above-described configuration, thehistory display unit may display the analysis result transmitted by thehistory outputting unit as a graph including a time axis indicating timepassage in conformity with the chronological order and a rank axisindicating a rank as the analysis result, and also display the use timeof the cosmetic specific information transmitted by the historyoutputting unit in conformity with the time axis of the graph.

According to the above-described configuration, a relation between thechange in the rank of the skin condition with time passage and the usingcosmetic can be easily grasped, and whether the using cosmetic suitesthe skin can be easily determined.

Additionally, in the above-described configuration, a simultaneouscomparison unit may be provided, where the latest rank among the ranksas the analysis result stored along the chronological order in theanalysis result storage unit and a rank on a date in the past inputbased on the user's operation from the mobile terminal aresimultaneously comparably displayed.

According to this configuration, for example, the latest skin conditionand a relatively old skin condition obtained a certain time ago can beeasily compared, and therefore a difference of skin condition over along period can easily be grasped. Additionally, in the case where thereis a time when the skin condition was deteriorated previously, the skincondition at the time when the skin condition was deteriorated and thecurrent skin condition can be easily compared, and the extent ofrecovery of the skin condition can easily be found out.

Additionally, according to the above-described configuration, the skincondition analyzing unit may analyze the measurement result of the skincondition by the skin condition measuring unit based on comparisonbetween the measurement result and an accumulated plurality ofmeasurement results of the skin condition classified into a plurality oftypes, and determine which skin type among the plurality of skin typesthe skin condition measured as the analysis result belongs to,

in the analysis result storage unit, the ranks and the skin types of aplurality of users as the analysis results may be stored for each of theusers,

in the using cosmetic specific information storage unit, the cosmeticspecific information of the cosmetic used by each of the plurality ofusers may be stored for each of the users,

the data management server may include:

a user extracting unit in which in the case where a request is made todisplay analysis results of other users who use the cosmetic specifiedby the cosmetic specific information specified by the user operationfrom the mobile terminal and the cosmetic specific information and alsowho have the same skin type as the user having specified the cosmetic,other users having the specified cosmetic specific informationregistered in the using cosmetic specific information storage unit areextracted, and other users having the same skin type as the user havingspecified the cosmetic are extracted from the analysis result storageunit, to output a redundant user narrowed down by being redundantlyextracted from both the using cosmetic specific information storage unitand the analysis result storage unit;

a rank extracting unit configured to extract, from the analysis resultstorage unit, the rank of the redundant user extracted from the userextracting unit; and

a rank transmitting unit configured to create a data table in which therank of each of other users extracted from the rank extracting unit iscorrelated to a transitional period from start of using the cosmeticspecified by each of other users, and transmits the data table to themobile terminal, and

the mobile terminal may include an analysis result display unit forother user configured to display the rank on the transmitted data tablecorrelated to the transitional period from start of using the specifiedcosmetic.

According to this configuration, it is possible to find out the skincondition change in the case where other person having the same skintype as the user uses the cosmetic used by the user and the cosmeticwhich the user is thinking about using. The skin condition change of theother person having the same skin type enables the user to predictwhether the cosmetic is suitable for the user, and serves as a referencein the case of determining the cosmetic to be used from among manycosmetics.

In the management method for skin condition measurement analysisinformation that includes:

a mobile terminal capable of connecting the management method for skincondition measurement analysis information to a network via wirelesscommunication;

a data management server connected so as to be able to mutually executetransmission and receipt of information with the mobile terminal via thenetwork; and

a skin condition measuring unit connected to the mobile terminal or atleast partially provided in the mobile terminal, and capable ofmeasuring the skin condition of the user and storing the measurementdata in the mobile terminal,

the mobile terminal may be configured to enable the user to inputcosmetic specific information that can specify a cosmetic used by theuser,

the mobile terminal and/or the data management server may analyze themeasurement result of the skin condition by the skin condition measuringunit based on comparison between the measurement result and accumulatedplurality of measurement results of skin condition classified into aplurality of ranks, and determine which one of the plurality of ranksthe measured skin condition belongs to as an analysis result, and

the data management server may be configured to:

store along chronological order the ranks determined for eachmeasurement along the chronological order by skin condition measuringunit;

store the cosmetic specific information input by the user, correlated toa use time by the user of the cosmetic; and

transmit, in response to a request from the mobile terminal based on theuser operation, the analysis result stored in the data management serverand the cosmetic specific information to the mobile terminal, and

the mobile terminal may display the analysis result transmitted from thedata management server correlated to the chronological order, and alsodisplay the cosmetic specific information which can specify the use timecorrelated to the chronological order.

According to the above-described configuration, the data managementserver may include a registered cosmetic storage unit in which thecosmetic information of each of the cosmetics including the cosmeticspecific information that can specify each of the cosmetics isregistered correlated to one another for each of the cosmetics, and fromwhich, in the case where the cosmetic information is received from themobile terminal, the cosmetic specific information related to oridentical to the received cosmetic information can be extracted, and

the mobile terminal may be configured to:

enable a user to input the cosmetic information including the cosmeticspecific information in the mobile phone before the user determinatelyinputs the cosmetic specific information; transmit the input cosmeticinformation to the data management server in the case where the cosmeticinformation is input by the user; and assist the user to determinatelyinput the cosmetic specific information by displaying the transmittedcosmetic specific information such that the user can select anddeterminately input the cosmetic specific information in the case wherethe cosmetic specific information related to or identical to thetransmitted cosmetic information is extracted from the registeredcosmetic storage unit and transmitted to the mobile terminal.

Additionally, according the configuration of the present invention, themobile terminal or the data management server may determine that thecosmetic specific information of the cosmetic corresponding to thecosmetic information is not registered in the registered cosmeticstorage unit in the case where the cosmetic specific information relatedto or identical to the cosmetic information cannot be extracted from theregistered cosmetic storage unit on the occasion where the cosmeticinformation is transmitted from the mobile terminal to the datamanagement server,

the mobile terminal may enable the user to input the non-registeredcosmetic specific information in the case where the cosmetic isdetermined to be non-registered, and also transmit the cosmetic specificinformation to the data management server when the cosmetic specificinformation is input,

the data management server may be configured to:

include a cosmetic maker contact information storage unit in which thecosmetic specific information and cosmetic maker contact informationspecified by the cosmetic specific information are correlated;

temporarily register the transmitted cosmetic specific information inthe registered cosmetic storage unit in the case where the cosmeticspecific information is transmitted from the mobile terminal;

extract the contact information from the cosmetic maker contactinformation storage unit based on the cosmetic specific informationtemporarily registered in the temporary registration unit, and assist acontact with the contact information to make a request to properlyregister, in the registered cosmetic storage unit, thetemporarily-registered cosmetic information of the cosmetic correlatedto the cosmetic specific information temporarily registered in theregistered cosmetic storage unit; and

permit a contacted person in charge of the cosmetic maker to registerthe cosmetic information in the registered cosmetic storage unit.

Additionally, according to the above-described configuration, the mobileterminal may display the analysis result transmitted from the datamanagement server as a graph including a time axis indicating timepassage in conformity with the chronological order and a rank axisindicating a rank as the analysis result, and also display the use timeof the cosmetic specific information transmitted from the datamanagement server in conformity with the time axis of the graph.

Additionally, according to the above-described configuration, the latestrank among the ranks as the analysis result stored along thechronological order in the data management server and a rank on a datein the past input based on the user's operation from the mobile terminalmay be simultaneously comparably displayed.

Additionally, according to the above-described configuration, the datamanagement server may analyze the measurement result of the skincondition measured by the skin condition measuring unit based on thecomparison between the measurement data and an accumulated plurality ofmeasurement results of the skin condition classified into a plurality oftypes, and determine which skin type among the plurality of skin typesthe skin condition measured as the analysis result belongs to,

in the data management server, the ranks and the skin types of aplurality of users as the analysis result may be stored for each of theusers, and also the cosmetic specific information of the cosmetic usedby each of the plurality of users may be stored for each of the users,

and in the case where a request is made to display analysis results ofother users who use the cosmetic specified by the cosmetic specificinformation specified by the user operation from the mobile terminal andthe cosmetic specific information and also who have the same skin typeas the user having specified the cosmetic specific information, the datamanagement server may:

extract other users having the specified cosmetic specific informationregistered and extracts other users having the same skin type as theuser having specified the cosmetic to output a redundant user narroweddown by being redundantly extracted from both the specified cosmeticspecific information and the skin type,

include a rank extracting unit configured to extract, from the datamanagement server, the rank of the redundant user; and

create a data table in which the rank of each of other users extractedfrom the rank extracting unit is correlated to a transitional periodfrom start of using the cosmetic specified by each of other users andtransmit the data table to the mobile terminal, and

the mobile terminal may display the rank on the transmitted data tablecorrelated to the transitional period from start of using the specifiedcosmetic.

According to the above-described management method for skin conditionmeasurement analysis information, the effects same as those of thecorresponding management system for skin condition measurement analysisinformation can be obtained.

Further, according to the above-described respective management systemfor skin condition measurement analysis information and managementmethod for skin condition measurement analysis information, the skincondition measuring device (skin condition measuring unit) may includeauthentication information that can be transmitted to the datamanagement server via a user client and can individually authenticateeach of the skin condition measuring devices,

the data management server may include:

an authenticating unit configured to authenticate the authenticationinformation;

an authentication information management table in which theauthentication information authenticated by the authenticating unit ofthe skin condition measuring device and the client ID input from theuser-client (mobile terminal) having transmitted the authenticationinformation are registered correlated each other, and further apredetermined number of the client IDs can be registered for respectiveauthentication information,

a registering unit configured to refer to the authentication informationmanagement table based on the authentication information transmitted viathe user client at the time of using the skin condition measuring deviceand also authenticated by the authenticating unit and the client IDinput from the user client, and register the client ID correlated to theauthentication information in the authentication information managementtable when the number of other client IDs already registered correlatedto the authentication information is fewer than the predetermined numberin the case where the client ID is not registered correlated to theauthentication information in the authentication information managementdata; and

a use inhibiting unit configured to inhibit use of the skin conditionmeasuring device via the user client in the cases where: theauthentication information is not input in the data management server;the authentication information is not authenticated by theauthenticating unit; and the client ID is not registered correlated tothe authentication information in the authentication informationmanagement table and also the number of the client IDs alreadyregistered correlated to the authentication information in theauthentication information management table is the predetermined number.

According to the above-described configuration, in the case where theauthentication information input to the data management server from theskin condition measuring device via the user client is not authenticatedby the authenticating unit, use of the skin condition measuring deviceis inhibited via the user client. For example, even when the measurementdata is output from the skin condition measuring device, the analysisresult data is not output to the user client from the data managementserver and the skin condition measuring device enters an unusable state.

In the same manner, in the case where the authentication information isnot input from the skin condition measuring device to the datamanagement server via the user client, the skin condition measuringdevice enters the unusable state.

Additionally, in the same manner, in the case where the predeterminednumber of other client IDs is already registered correlated to theauthentication information in the authentication information managementtable although the authentication information is authenticated, the skincondition measuring device enters the unusable state. In this case, theskin condition measuring device becomes usable in the user client havingthe client ID already registered correlated to the authenticationinformation in the authentication information management table.

According to the above-described management system for skin conditionmeasurement analysis information and management method for skincondition measurement analysis information, any illegitimate skincondition measuring device other than a legitimate skin conditionmeasuring device used in the management system for skin conditionmeasurement analysis information is not authenticated, and damage causedby using such an illegitimate skin condition measuring device withrespect to the management system for skin condition measurement analysisinformation can be suppressed.

Additionally, since in authentication information management table, thepredetermined number of client IDs can be registered correlated to onepiece of the authentication information, and the skin conditionmeasuring device can be used via the user clients of the registeredclient IDs, for example, in the case where the predetermined number ismembers of a group like a family, the same skin condition measuringdevice can be used by connecting to the user clients of the respectivemembers.

In other words, even when the skin condition measuring device is alegitimate device having the authentication information that can beauthenticated by the authenticating unit, use at the user client havinga different client ID is limited, and for example, even in the case ofthe legitimate product, the skin condition measuring device cannot beused by being connected to the number of the user clients exceeding thepredetermined number. Therefore, using the skin condition measuringdevice among a relatively small group such as a family is permitted butunruly using is restricted, and thus both user friendliness andappropriate operating cost for the management system for skin conditionmeasurement analysis information can be satisfied in a good balance.Note that the above-described exclusion of the illegitimate product byusing the authentication information and limiting use in the pluralityof user clients may be applied not only to the skin condition measuringdevice but also to the skin care device that can be used by connectingto the user client.

Advantageous Effects of Invention

According to the management system for skin condition measurementanalysis information and the management method for skin conditionmeasurement analysis information of the present invention, thecontractor such as the cosmetic company can acquire the measurement dataof the skin condition and the analysis result data of analyzing themeasurement data of many users, and the accompanying data of a user, andthe user can have the skin condition analyzed free of charge or at a lowprice due to usage fee of the contractor.

Additionally, the effects of the currently using cosmetics can beestimated because the skin condition change with time passage and thecosmetic used for the period can be confirmed by comparison.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a management system forskin condition measurement analysis information according to anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating display screens and the like of asmartphone that has started an application for a management system forskin condition measurement analysis information.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for describing functions of the smartphoneapplication.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for describing beauty devices registered in thesmartphone.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating the management system for skincondition measurement analysis information.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a user registration processing in amanagement method for skin condition measurement analysis informationaccording to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating sensor registration processing in themanagement method for skin condition measurement analysis information.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating skin analysis processing in themanagement method for skin condition measurement analysis information.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating display processing for a detailedskin analysis result in the management method for skin conditionmeasurement analysis information.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating beauty care processing in themanagement method for skin condition measurement analysis information.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating skin condition improvementdetermination processing in the management method for skin conditionmeasurement analysis information.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating skin history display processing inthe management method for skin condition measurement analysisinformation.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating skin history display processing inthe management method for skin condition measurement analysisinformation.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating secondary use processing in themanagement method for skin condition measurement analysis information.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating a modified example of the secondaryuse processing in the management method for skin condition measurementanalysis information.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart illustrating user cosmetic registrationprocessing in the management system for skin condition measurementanalysis information.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating user skin history display processingin a management system for skin condition measurement analysisinformation.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart illustrating effect confirming processing for aspecified cosmetic in the management system for skin conditionmeasurement analysis information.

FIG. 19 is a diagram for describing a cosmetic registration screendisplayed on a smartphone display.

FIG. 20 is a diagram for describing an input screen for using cosmeticsfor a care chart displayed on the smartphone display.

FIG. 21 is a diagram for describing a skin history display screendisplayed on the smartphone display.

FIG. 22 is a diagram for describing a comparison display screendisplayed on the smartphone display.

FIG. 23 is a diagram for describing a cosmetic selecting screen and agraph display screen displayed on the smartphone display.

FIG. 24 is a diagram for describing search items displayed on a displayscreen of a contractor client and classified into search levels.

FIG. 25 is a diagram for describing the search items displayed on thedisplay screen of the contractor client and classified into the levelsby the search levels.

FIG. 26 is a diagram for describing kinds of data displayed on thedisplay screen of the contractor client and classified into levels byaccess levels.

FIG. 27 is a diagram for describing the kinds of data displayed on thedisplay screen of the contractor client and classified into the levelsby the access levels.

FIG. 28 is a diagram illustrating a history deleting button displayed ona analysis result display screen of the smartphone.

FIG. 29 is a diagram illustrating the history deleting button displayedon a past analysis result display screen of the smartphone.

FIG. 30 is a block diagram illustrating the management system for skincondition measurement analysis information provided with an imagequality converting unit for unifying the number of pixels in image datasent from the smartphone to a data management server.

FIG. 31 is a block diagram illustrating the management system for skincondition measurement analysis information provided with the imagequality converting unit for unifying the number of pixels in the imagedata sent from the smartphone to the data management server.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENT

An embodiment of the present invention will be described with referenceto the drawings.

A system for skin condition measurement analysis information and amanagement method for skin condition measurement analysis informationaccording to the present embodiment is directed to offering, to a userof a skin condition measuring device who is a member of the managementsystem of skin condition measurement analysis information, servicewhereby an analysis result on the own skin condition of the user can beobtained from measurement data of the skin condition measuring device,at low cost (e.g., free-of-charge or relatively inexpensive membershipfee) and thus having the user recognize the own skin condition.

On this occasion, the number of sales of the skin condition measuringdevice can be increased by enabling the skin condition to be found outat the low cost, and also as the user is encouraged to frequentlymeasure the skin condition to obtain the analysis result from themeasurement data, the measurement data from many users can be collected.In this case, sales of skin care articles and a skin care device 2 ispromoted by making the users use the skin care articles includingcosmetics and the skin care device 2 to grasp improvement of the skincondition. Note that, to encourage the users to measure the skincondition, points may be given to the users on the occasion where theusers measure the skin condition and request for analysis.

Additionally, in the case of having collected many pieces of measurementdata of skin condition, the collected data can be used for developmentof various kinds of skin care articles by makers and distributor firmsof cosmetics (cosmetics companies) for a fee. On this occasion, themeasurement data can be used more effectively by providing not only themeasurement data but also accompanying data including the skin carearticles and skin care device 2 used by the user and further a roughage, a place of residence, annual income, occupation, etc. of the user,and thus adding an additional value to the measurement data. Thus,profit can be obtained not only from the users who purchase the skincondition measuring device and the like but also from a secondary userof the data, such as the cosmetic company, that uses the above-describedmeasurement data.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the management system for skin conditionmeasurement analysis information according to the present embodimentincludes a skin condition measuring device 1, a smartphone 3 as a userclient connectable to a skin care device (beauty care device) 2, a datamanagement server 5 connectable to the smartphone 3 via the Internet 4(network), and a computer system of a partner company such as a cosmeticcompany as a contractor client 6.

The skin condition measuring device 1 is, for example, a camera for skinand includes a sensor unit 11 provided with an imaging device and alighting LED, a control unit 12, and a USB (universal serial bus)interface 13.

The lighting LED is capable of emitting two colors of light andalternately emitting skin color light and white color light. When theskin color light is emitted, the skin condition can be clearlyphotographed and condition of skin texture (texture) can be analyzed.Generally, when the condition of the skin texture is good, substantiallytriangle-shaped mesh-like grooves can be observed on a skin surfacerelatively in a logical manner. In contrast, when the condition of thetexture is bad, the grooves become unclear, a shape of the mesh iscollapsed, or the grooves become less visible, and a portion having nogroove is in a roughened state.

Additionally, the above-described groove is called sulci cutis and aflat portion on the substantially triangle shape surrounded by the sulcicutis is called cristae cutis. Additionally, pores are observed inaddition to the sulci cutis and cristae cutis, but in the case where thecondition of the texture is good, the pores are small and less visiblewhile in the case where the condition is bad, the pores become large andclearly visible.

When the skin is magnified and photographed under the skin color light,the condition of the texture turns out to be a clear image and the imagedata can be easily analyzed.

Additionally, in the case of lighting the skin with the white light,image data where spots are easily recognized can be obtained.

That is. The spots appear dark (gray) in contrast to the skin thatappears white, and the spots can be relatively easily recognized. Theskin condition measuring device 1 as the camera for skin can executephotographing by switching between a texture mode and a spots mode andprovided with a mode change switch for changing the modes. In connectionwith imaging data as the measurement data by the camera for skin, dataindicating the texture mode or the spots mode is output to thesmartphone 3.

Note that, in addition to the above-described white color light and skincolor light, the skin may be irradiated with, for example, light havinga wavelength of about 375 mm that is near-ultraviolet light as alighting so as to detect porphyrin inside the skin. Note that, at thetime of irradiating the skin with ultraviolet light, the porphyrin canbe detected by red-orange fluorescence emitted from the porphyrinexcited by the ultraviolet light. Note that the porphyrin may exist inthe skin of a porphyria patient.

Note that a photographing portion of the camera for skin includes abox-shaped hood and is provided with a transparent plate (may have anoptical function) deep inside the hood, and a lens, the imaging device,the lighting LED, etc. are provided on the back side (inner side) of thetransparent plate. Photographing can be executed when a tip of the hoodis pressed against the skin to shield a surrounding light.

A USB interface 13 is used for, for example, connecting with theabove-described smartphone 3 (an intelligent device including aprocessor (CPU) capable of executing arithmetic processing based on aprogram) as the user client, and the USB interface is also provided onthe smartphone 3 side. The USB interface 13 of the skin conditionmeasuring device 1 is a client side and the USB interface of thesmartphone 3 as the user client becomes a host side.

The skin condition measuring device 1 is capable of outputting the imagedata as the measurement data by the USB interface 13, and for example,adjustment of brightness of the lighting LED can be controlled from thesmartphone 3 side.

Additionally, the USB interface 13 is provided with a buffer for datastorage called an end point, and data stored in the end point is readfrom the smartphone 3 side.

Further, in the USB interface, data called a descriptor is written andconfigured to be read from the smartphone 3 side. For example, in thecase where the skin condition measuring device 1 outputs the image datasame as the above-described camera for skin, for example, the fact ofbeing the camera (a device that outputs images) is written in thedescriptor, and a driver for the camera preliminarily stored or a driverinstalled as a part of a dedicated application 5 j described later isset on the smartphone 3 side.

Note that the descriptor includes a device descriptor in which a USBRevision, a device class, a vendor ID, etc. are registered, aconfiguration descriptor in which a kind of a power source, maximumpower consumption, etc. are registered, an interface descriptor in whicha class code, the above-described endpoint, etc. are registered, an endpoint descriptor in which a data transmitting direction from the endpoint, and a transmitting method, a maximum bucket size, etc. areregistered, in connection with a device such as the above-describedcamera.

Additionally, the descriptor includes a string descriptor that stores acharacter string, and according to the present embodiment, a productserial number is stored in this descriptor for the character string asan authentication character string. Using this product serial number,the skin condition measuring device 1 can be authenticated as aspecified device, for example, a device manufactured by a predeterminedmaker.

That is, the skin condition measuring device 1 stores the authenticationcharacter string and also has a function as a device authenticationtransmitting unit that executes outputting to the smartphone 3 that isthe user client (mobile terminal)

That is, even in the case of the skin condition measuring device 1having the same function, for example, only the skin condition measuringdevice 1 authorized by an operating company of the data managementserver 5 can be recognized using the product serial number so as to beused in the management system for skin condition measurement analysisinformation. That is, in the case where the product serial number cannotbe read from the skin condition measuring device 1, or in the case wherethe product serial number is not a product serial number arranged in apredetermined character string and cannot be authenticated, use of themanagement system for skin condition measurement analysis information isinhibited.

Note that the data communication between the camera for skin as the skincondition measuring device 1 and the smartphone 3 is not limited to theUSB, and other serial or parallel wired communication and wirelesscommunication such as Bluetooth, WiFi, NFC (Near Field Communication),etc. may also be used.

Additionally, the camera for skin may be a digital camera built insidethe smartphone or the like and having a conversion lens attachedthereto. Thus, the image data photographed by the digital camera of thesmartphone and stored in a storage device of the smartphone 3 can betransmitted to the data management server 5 via the Internet 4. In thiscase, it is not necessary to transmit the image data from the camera forskin to the smartphone as in the case of connecting the camera for skinto the smartphone 3, and a communication unit for transmitting the imagedata is unnecessary.

However, also in the conversion lens, it is preferable not to useoutside light but to photograph by using the above-described skin colorlight LED and white color light LED. In this case, it is necessary tosynchronize photographing timing (shutter releasing timing) on thesmartphone side, emitting timing of a white color light LED on theconversion lens side, and emitting timing of a skin color light LED onthe conversion lens side. That is, photographing by the smartphone 3while the white color light on the conversion lens side is emitted andphotographing by the smartphone 3 while the skin color light on theconversion lens side is emitted are needed to be executed.

In such a case, the above-described wired communication such as the USBor Bluetooth, WiFi, NFC, etc. may be used. Additionally, photographingis basically executed in the smartphone 3 based on a photographingprogram of the later-described dedicated application 5 j, and when thelighting at the time of photographing is necessary, the smartphone 3only needs to switch on/off the white color light LED (driving circuit)and the skin color light LED (driving circuit) of the conversion lens.

Accordingly, a light receiver may be disposed on the conversion sidesuch that the above-described ON/OFF of the LED is controlled based onwhether the above-described light receiver has received the lightemitted from the Lighting LED (flash) at the time when the smartphone 3executes photographing. The above-described ON/OFF of the LED may alsobe controlled by an output sound on the smartphone side such as ashutter sound. On this occasion, a signal may be transmitted using DTMF(Dual Tone Multi Frequency) for the control by the sound.

Additionally, lighting ON/OFF of a white color LED and lighting ON/OFFof a skin color LED may be executed based on a predetermined timeinterval on the conversion lens side and the lighting ON/OFF may bedetected on the digital camera side of the smartphone 3, based on whichtexture-mode photographing in the case of emitting the skin color lightLED and spots-mode photographing in the case of emitting the white colorlight LED may be executed.

Additionally, such a configuration may be adopted where an ID (serialnumber) used for discriminating whether a conversion lens is alegitimate product or an illegitimate product (imitation) ordiscriminating difference in an utilization condition of each conversionlens and the like is transmitted from the conversion lens to the datamanagement server 5 side via the smartphone 3. In this case, the ID maybe transmitted from the conversion lens side to the smartphone 3 side byusing the above-described USB, Bluetooth, WiFi. NFC, and so on.Additionally, in the case of not providing the above-describedcommunication units on the conversion lens side, for example, a bar codesuch as a two-dimensional bar code, other code, or a character stringindicated on attached items such as a box, a manual, a guarantee formattached to the conversion lens at the time of purchasing the conversionlens may be photographed by the smartphone 3, and a photographed imageor an ID converted from the bar code or the like by image recognition ofthe image, or an ID recognized as a character may be transmitted to thedata management server 5 side. Additionally, the above-described barcode or character string may be disposed at a position imaged within arange of a photographed image when photographing is executed by thesmartphone 3 of the conversion lens, and an ID of the conversion lensmay be read from the bar code or the like imaged within the range ofskin image data on the data management server 5 side by sending thephotographed skin image data to the data management server 5.

Additionally, there is possibility in the future that the camera of thesmartphone be provided with a macro function and become capable oftaking a close-up photo of the skin, or mounted with a digital cameraprovided not simply with the macro function but with an optical systemcapable of photographing the above-described texture and spots as thecamera for skin, and in such a case, the skin may be photographed by thedigital camera mounted to the smartphone without conversion lens andimage data thereof may be sent to the data management server 5.

Additionally, the skin condition measuring device 1 may be, other thanthe above-described camera for skin, a known evaporimeter that measurestransepidermal water loss, or a melanin meter that measures a melaninamount in the skin may be adopted besides.

Additionally, a device that measures ultraviolet (UV) (UV checker) maybe connectable to the smartphone 3 as an environment measurement sensoralthough not being a device that directly measures the skin condition.Note that in the case of observe influence of the ultraviolet to theskin, it is preferable that the UV checker be capable of consecutivelyoutputting separate independent value data for UV-A related to melaningeneration and UV-B causing inflammation, respectively.

The above-described skin condition measuring device 1 can output theabove-described product serial number and measurement data to thesmartphone 3 via the USB interface 13.

Additionally, with authentication of the product serial number, theanalysis result data on the measurement data output via the smartphone 3can be obtained. Note that in the case of the conversion lens,preferably the product serial number of the conversion lens can be madeto the smartphone 3 via the above-described wired or wirelesscommunication. Additionally, in the case where there is no communicationexecuted between the smartphone 3 and the conversion lens side, a coatwhich can be optically recognized and indicates the product serialnumber, such as the two-dimensional bar code, is disposed outside aphotographing range of the skin within the photographing range of thedigital camera of the smartphone 3 of the conversion lens, and therebythe product serial number can be transmitted from the conversion lens tothe smartphone. In this case, a program capable of reading thetwo-dimensional bar code needs to be installed on the smartphone side asa part of the later-described dedicated application 5 j. Thus, itbecomes possible to sort out a user of a specific conversion lens and aspecific camera for skin and other users, and further exclude animitation conversion lens and an illegitimate conversion lens, orexclude an inappropriate photographed image.

Additionally, in the camera for skin as the skin condition measuringdevice 1, for example, photographing is executed under predeterminedconditions, and when the image data and the product serial numberobtained on that occasion are sent to the data management server 5 viathe smartphone 3, brightness and color tone can be calibrated. Note thatphotographing under the predetermined conditions is, for example,photographing while the hood of the camera for skin is pressed againstblack and white patterns or color patterns.

The image data may be corrected with calibration data obtained bycalibration or, for example, the lighting LED may be adjusted by lightcontrol data and color control data based on the calibration data on thecamera for skin side. Note that, although it has been described that theskin condition measuring device 1 is connected to smartphone 3 via theUSB interface 13, the skin condition measuring device 1 may be connectedto the smartphone 3 by using Bluetooth (registered trademark).

For the skin care device 2, for example, an ion cleansing device thatremoves dirt of the skin with positive ions, an ion introducing devicethat causes an ionized component to permeate deep skin by passing afeeble DC current to the skin, an LED photo beauty device that providesactivation of skin cells and hyperthermic effect by applying the LEDlight, a roller beauty device that stimulates the skin with the rollerhaving germanium and the like attached thereto and provides effect ofmassage, a cooling beauty device that cools the skin to close the pores,and an ultrasonic wave beauty device that provides the effect of massageand the hyperthermic effect are prepared.

Additionally, the skin care device 2 includes an actuating unit 21actually acting on the skin and also includes the control unit 12 andthe USB interface 13 in the same manner as the skin condition measuringdevice 1. Additionally, an operation time, an output level and the likeof the skin care device 2 can be controlled by the smartphone 3 byconnecting the skin care device 2 to the smartphone 3 via the USBinterface 13, and operation can be stopped when a time preset on thesmartphone 3 side has passed after a user starts the skin care device 2.Additionally, in the case of the skin care device 2 having a pluralityof steps of the output level, the output level can be set from thesmartphone 3 side.

For example, the data management server 5 later described is providedwith a skin care database 5 _(l) in which the above-described analysisresult data is correlated to a control method such as the operation timeand output level of the skin care device 2, and for example the skincare device 2 can be controlled by acquiring the analysis result datafrom a measurement data database 52 and acquiring the control methodcorresponding to the acquired analysis result data from the skin caredatabase 51. That is, the skin care device 2 can be efficiently actuatedbased on the analysis result on the measurement data.

Note that a product serial number as an authentication character stringis also stored in the skin care device 2 and can be output, in the samemanner as the skin condition measuring device 1.

The user client is basically the smartphone 3, but may be a deviceprovided with a general-purpose arithmetic processing unit (such as CPU)that executes processing based on a program of a notebook computer, atablet type (pad type) computer, or the like. For the user client, it ispreferable to adopt a portable device that can be connected to theInternet 4 as a network via the wireless telephone line or otherwireless communication line.

The smartphone 3 as the user client is capable of using, for example, awireless telephone line for mobile use as the wireless communication,and also capable of using the wireless LAN (WiFi), and is connectable tothe Internet 4 as the network by using the wireless communication so asto be a wireless mobile terminal (wireless mobile client).

Additionally, in the smartphone 3, for example, an applicationdownloaded and installed (hereinafter simply referred to as thededicated application 5 j) is executable, and according to the presentembodiment, an application for measuring the skin condition isdownloaded from the data management server 5 to the smartphone 3 as thededicated application 5 j.

The dedicated application 5 j executed in the smartphone 3 includes fourfunctions as illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3. That is, there are fourfunctions including beauty analysis, beauty care, beauty life, andbeauty makeup. In the beauty analysis, various kinds of measurementillustrated in FIG. 3 can be executed by using various kinds ofmeasurement devices (sensors) connected to the smartphone 3 via the USBinterface 13. Each of the measurement devices is usable by connecting toa USB terminal of the smartphone 3 in which the dedicated application 5j installed. Additionally, measurement by a different sensor can beexecuted by newly connecting to each kind of measurement device, andmainly the skin condition can be measured.

Additionally, measurement results of the various kinds of measurementdevices can be transmitted to and stored in the data management server5, and also the skin condition can be analyzed from the measurementdata.

In the beauty care, various kinds of the skin care devices can be usedby connecting to the smartphone 3. In this case also, the various kindsof skin care devices can be attached to the USB terminal in the samemanner as the above-described beauty analysis. Additionally, a usehistory can be saved by connecting to the smartphone 3, and the variouskinds of skin care devices can be controlled by enabling datacommunication between the smartphone 3 and the data management server 5.

The beauty life is directed to daily life while the beauty analysis ismainly directed to the skin and a device for checking an amount ofultraviolet light or breath odor can be connected to the USB terminal ofthe smartphone 3. In the beauty makeup, information related to makeup ismainly provided.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating display screens 3 a, 3 b, 3 c and 3 das a display unit of the smartphone 3. The display screen 3 a indicatesa main menu, the display screen 3 b indicates a beauty analysis menu,and the display screen 3 c indicates registered sensor display. Notethat marks of devices that can be registered preliminarily are displayedon the registered sensor display as described later, but a mark of adevice that has not registered is displayed darker than a mark of adevice that have been registered.

Since a plurality of measurement devices and skin care devices can beconnected and thus a systematic configuration is provided, the displayof the above-described marks creates a desire to collect the beautydevices connectable to the smartphone 3.

Additionally, the plurality of skin care devices is connectable as shownin the display screen (register screen 3 d) in the beauty care as well.As illustrated in FIG. 4, the mark for the device having been registeredis displayed bright and the device that has not registered is displayeddark on the register screen 3 d of the beauty care.

When the camera for skin as the skin condition measuring device 1 isconnected as described above, the dedicated application 5 j formeasuring the skin condition that is executed in the arithmeticprocessing unit of the smartphone 3 has a function as a measurement datatransmitting unit which inputs the image data photographed by the camerafor skin via the USB interface 13 and outputs the image data to the datamanagement server 5 on the Internet 4. Additionally, the dedicatedapplication 5 j has a function as an analysis result display unit thatreceives, for example, analysis result data severing as a result ofanalyzing the measurement data transmitted from the data managementserver 5 and displays the analysis result data on the display of thesmartphone 3.

Additionally, the above-described dedicated application 5 j has afunction as a user data transmitting unit that executes memberregistration that is an input of user data (personal information) tobecome a member (user) who uses the management system for skin conditionmeasurement analysis information administrated by an operator of thedata management server 5, and responds to a questionnaire that is aninput of accompanying data which does not include predetermined personalinformation that can specify an individual among the user data.

Additionally, the above-described dedicated application 5 j has afunction as a data browsing requesting unit that makes a request toenable browsing of the above-described respective user data, measurementdata, and analysis result data on the measurement data stored in thedata management server 5 as described below.

Additionally, the dedicated application 5 j has a function as a datadisplay unit that displays the requested data when the requested data isreceived from the data management server 5.

Additionally, the dedicated application 5 j has a function as the deviceauthentication transmitting unit that transmits the authenticationcharacter string received from the skin condition measuring device 1 tothe data management server 5.

Additionally, the dedicated application (skin care application) 5 j forthe skin care device 2 can be downloaded from the data management server5 and installed in the smartphone 3.

Additionally, the skin care application as the dedicated application 5 jof the smartphone 3 as a control method acquiring unit that acquires acontrol method for the skin care device 2, has a function of controllingthe skin care device 2 by acquiring the control method from the datamanagement server 5.

Additionally, the skin care application of the smartphone 3 functions asa schedule acquiring unit that acquires a use schedule for the skin caredevice 2 from the data management server 5, and functions as a scheduleinforming unit that informs the use schedule, for example, by displayingthe use schedule on the display.

Additionally, when a signal indicating an operation start and a signalindicating operation finish are received from the skin care device 2,the skin care application of the smartphone 3 functions as a use historygenerating unit that generates use history data including data of a usedate and time a and a use time, and transmits the use history data tothe data management server 5.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the data management server 5 includes a userdata database 51 for basically storing the above-described user data, ameasurement data database 52 for storing the measurement data by theskin condition measuring device 1, a data analysis database 53 foracquiring the analysis result from the measurement data, and acontractor database 54.

As illustrated in FIG. 5 more in detail, the data management server 5includes a control unit 5 k including a CPU or the like for functioningas a server. Additionally, in the data management server 5, the userdata database 51 is divided into a plurality of databases and includes,as the user data database 51, a client (user) personal informationmanagement database 5 a, a beauty care database 5 c, a using cosmetichistory database 5 d, and a care chart database 5 o. Additionally, thedata management server 5 includes a skin history database 5 b, and adetailed analysis result database 5 e as the measurement data database52.

Additionally, the data management server 5 includes a skin referencevalue database 5 g as the data analysis database 53. Additionally, thedata management server 5 includes a secondary data user access rightmanagement database 5 h as the contractor database 54.

Additionally, besides the above-described databases 51 to 54, the datamanagement server 5 includes a device information database 5 i thatmanages the device having the same product serial number such that oneskin condition measuring device 1 and one skin care device 2 can beshared among a plurality of the smartphones 3.

Additionally, the data management server 5 includes the skin caredatabase 5 l where the control method for the skin care device 2 can beretrieved based on the analysis result data, a calibration database 5 mfor calibrating the camera for skin (image data), and a scheduledatabase 5 n for obtaining a use schedule of skin care device 2 based ona result of simple analysis, besides the above-described databases 51 to54. Furthermore, the data management server 5 includes a cosmetic makermanagement database 5 q and a registered cosmetic maker database 5 pbesides the above-described databases 51 to 54.

The client personal information management database 5 a stores, asillustrated in Table 1, a client ID, an individual user ID, anindividual password, a name, a birthday, age, sex, an address 1(country), an address 2 (prefecture), an address 3 (city, town, andvillage (county)), an address 4 (house number (apartment name, roomnumber)), an e-mail address, and billing information (credit cardinformation, etc.) as the data which the user has input by using thesmartphone 3. Note that the client ID is an ID assigned on the datamanagement server 5 side, correlated to the individual user ID, and theindividual user ID is an ID to be set on condition that the individualuser ID of a user does not coincide with that of other user.Additionally, the individual password is used for user authenticationtogether with the individual user ID. Note that two IDs of the client IDand the individual user ID are used for each user as a one-to-onecorresponding ID; however, one ID may double as these IDs, or only theclient ID may be used as the user ID, or the individual user ID may beused as the user ID.

TABLE 1 Client Personal Information Management D/B Client ID Individualuser ID Individual password Name Birthday Age Sex Address 1 (country)Address 2 (prefecture) Address 3 (city, town, village) Address 4 (housenumber) E-mail address Billing information Product serial number ofcamera for skin (unique ID) Product serial number of evaporimeterProduct serial number of melanin meter Product serial number of othersensor Product serial number of ion cleansing device Product serialnumber of ion introducing device Product serial number of roller beautydevice Product serial number of ultrasonic wave beauty device Productserial number of other beauty device

Additionally, in the case where data related to a user is stored in eachof the databases, all the data is managed by the client ID, and the datarelated to each user can be acquired by searching each of the databasesstoring the respective data related to each of the users, using theclient ID and searching all the data related to each user.

Therefore, the data of each user is also registered in the clientpersonal information management database 5 a, correlated for each clientID.

Additionally, as illustrated in Table 1, the client personal informationmanagement database 5 a further stores the product serial numberreceived from the skin condition measuring device 1 and the skin caredevice 2 connected to the smartphone 3. Note that the product serialnumber is stored after authenticated at the data management server 5 asdescribed later, and in the case where the product serial number isregistered in the client personal information management database 5 a,authentication for the product serial number is not executed.

Additionally, as illustrated in Table 2, the measurement data receivedfrom each skin condition measuring device 1 is registered correlated tothe client ID and the data input date and time in the skin historydatabase 5 b. Additionally, data of each simple diagnosis (analysis)result is registered, correlated to the measurement data, as an analysisresult storage unit. Note that, for example, in the case where themeasurement data is received from various kinds of skin conditionmeasuring devices 1 within a predetermined time, e.g., 30 minutes,comprehensive simple analysis is executed and data of a result of thecomprehensive simple analysis is registered. Further, in the case wheredetailed analysis is executed for the measurement data, a result of thedetailed analysis is informed and then data of the result of thedetailed analysis is registered in the detailed analysis resultdatabase, correlated to the client ID and the measurement date and time,and a storage address of the data written in the detailed analysisresult database is registered in the skin history database.

TABLE 2

Note that in the simple analysis, measurement data preliminarilyaccumulated and a rank of the skin condition as analysis result data arepreliminarily correlated and registered in the skin reference valuedatabase 5 g, and approximate measurement data is selected from themeasurement data in the skin reference value database 5 g with respectto the measurement data as the measurement result, and the rankcorrelated to the selected measurement data is output as a result of thesimple analysis. This processing is executed by a simple analysisprogram 5 f of the data management server 5 as the skin conditionanalyzing unit. Additionally, as with the camera for skin, in the casewhere the measurement data is the image data, image data approximate tothe image data photographed by the camera for skin is selected by knownimage recognition from among the image data as the measurement dataregistered in the skin reference value database 5 g.

Note that as illustrated in Table 2, the input skin image includes animage for texture analysis photographed using the LED lighting of theskin color light, an image for spots analysis photographed using the LEDlighting of the white color light, and a skin image photographed usingthe LED lighting close to natural light or a skin image having colorsreproduced by white balance (e.g., automatic white balance) on theoccasion of photographing with the LED of the above-described whitecolor light or skin color light. The skin image is used for determininga skin color (color difference due to sunburn, darkening, etc.), forexample. Note that, according to the present embodiment, the skin colordetermination is not executed in the simple analysis but executed in thedetailed analysis.

In the simple analysis in which the image for respective analysis isused, texture, spots, wrinkles are determined. Note that the image fortexture analysis is used for wrinkles analysis, for example, but otherimage may also be used. In the simple analysis, plural pieces of imagedata stored in the skin reference value database 5 g as described aboveand also correlated to the scores (ranks) are compared, image dataclosest to the image data photographed and input by the user isselected, and the score (rank) of the selected image data becomes aresult of simple image analysis. Note that, for example, statisticalprocessing may be performed on plural pieces of collected image datausing the ranks of texture, spots, and wrinkles to obtain the deviationvalues, and then a deviation value of a similar image data may be usedas the analysis result.

Additionally, the diagnosis result (analysis result) may be obtainedusing the above-described image for diagnosis by respective analysismethods for pore, porphyrin in a horny plug, wrinkles, spots, and skincolor, as disclosed in JP Patent No. 5080060.

Additionally, in the skin history data, positional information (measuredpoint) measured by a GPS built inside the smartphone 3 on the data inputdate and time is registered as GPS data. Additionally, weatherinformation at the above-described measured point of the above-describedGPS is acquired from a weather information site and registered. Notethat the data input date and time is a date and time when respectiveskin measurement was executed, but may also be a date and time when aresult of the simple analysis was stored. The data of respective itemsis automatically input by executing the skin measurement.

As for a measurement condition flag, for example, in the case where GPSdata is distant from a normal measured point, for example, in the casewhere skin measurement data is input from a measured point being at apredetermined distance or more while measurement has been consecutivelyexecuted in the same prefecture or same city more than once until theprevious measurement, a flag (measurement condition flag) is set on themeasurement data measured at the measured point or the simple analysisresult. Note that, in addition to the measured point, in the case wheretemperature and humidity in the weather information exceeds apredetermined range or in the case where a difference from an averagetemperature and an average humidity at the measured point on the inputdate and time exceeds a predetermined range, the flag may be set on themeasurement data and the simple analysis result.

The measurement data and the simple analysis result on which the flaghave been set are excluded in the case where the statistical processing,such as obtaining an average of respective data, is executed. Forexample, the data on which the flag has been set is not to be includedin a population on the occasion of executing the statistical processing.That is, in the case of being distant from a usual location, or in thecase where the weather condition is quite different, environmentalconditions may be largely different, and therefore the measurementresult is likely to become an abnormal value, and in order to preventthe abnormal value from affecting a statistical result, the data onwhich the flag has been set is excluded from the population of thestatistical processing.

A score (rank) and a deviation value as simple analysis results on thetexture, spots, and wrinkles obtained as described above are registeredin a simple analysis result on the skin image. Additionally, a skin typeis selected based on the analysis results on the texture, spots, andwrinkles, a color in the skin image (redness due to dryness androughness), presence or absence of eczema caused by atopic dermatitis,and disorder of the texture due to dryness. Note that the skin type isalso determined by the detailed analysis, which will be described alongwith explanation for the later-described detailed analysis resultdatabase 5 e.

Additionally, the detailed analysis is executed for the measurement datain servers of cosmetic companies, for example, as affiliated companies(a server 61 of cosmetic company A, a server 61 of cosmetic company B),and the server of the cosmetic company is to be the skin conditionanalyzing unit. Basically, in the same manner as the simple analysis,measurement data approximate to the measurement data obtained by theskin condition measuring device 1 is selected from the database includedin a detailed analysis system 62 where the measurement data and theanalysis result data are correlated, and the analysis result datacorrelated to the selected measurement data is output. However, in thedetailed analysis, for example, the number of the registered measurementdata and the analysis result data are larger than the case of the simpleanalysis, and are classified more in detail into the database for thedetailed analysis such that an analysis result more detailed than thesimple analysis can be obtained. Additionally, the measurement dataregistered in the database may be selected for the detailed analysiswith an algorithm original to each of the cosmetic companies so as toobtain an analysis result corresponding thereto.

As illustrated in Table 3, history data of skin care articles(cosmetics) is registered for respective cosmetic categories (kinds)correlated to the client IDs in the using cosmetic history database 5 das a using cosmetic specific information storage unit. Note that thehistory data is data for registering the cosmetics purchased by a user,and product codes of the cosmetics (using cosmetics) purchased by theuser are registered via the smartphone 3 as a cosmetic specificinformation inputting unit by a user cosmetic registration processingdescribed below. This product code is the cosmetic specific informationthat can specify a cosmetic. Note that an example is provided here, inwhich JAN (Japanese Article Number) code used in a bar code is used asthe product code.

TABLE 3

As illustrated on the right side of Table 3, the number indicating thecategory (kind) of each of the cosmetics, and a product code, a usestart date and a use finish date in the history data are registered inthe using cosmetic history database 5 d.

The right side of Table 3 illustrates a case in which the cosmeticcategory is the facial wash, as an example, and 1 is registered as thecode number of the product category of the facial wash, and the usestart date and use finish date are stored correlated to the productcode. Note that the use finish date is not registered in the case ofbeing in use (in the case where finish of use is not input).

Note that the use start date may be a date when the above-described usercosmetic registration processing was executed, or for example, a datethat a user is instructed to input by the processing of the dedicatedapplication 5 j of the smartphone 3 on the occasion of transmitting theimage data photographed by the camera for skin when there is a cosmeticwhich the user started using.

In this case, on the display of the smartphone 3, a list of the productnames (+maker names, etc.) of the cosmetics corresponding to respectivecosmetic categories is displayed by a pull-down menu or the like basedon the data registered in the registered cosmetic database (registeredcosmetic storage unit) 5 p in which the cosmetic information isregistered by the user cosmetic registration processing, and a cosmeticthat the user starts using may be selected from the list. Thus, theproduct code correlated to the cosmetic name is registered and also theinput date is registered as the use start date in the registeredcosmetic storage unit 5 p. In the same manner, the user may beinstructed to input the use finish date through the dedicatedapplication 5 j of the smartphone 3 when there is a cosmetic that theuser finished using.

In this case, the user may select the product name or the like of thecosmetic which the user finished using by displaying a list of data suchas the product names of the cosmetics that the user started using withthe pull-down menu or the like. In this case also, the product code ofthe selected cosmetic is input and also the input date is registered asthe use finish date. Note that a method of inputting the using cosmeticsmay be executed as described below by inputting a bar code or inputtingdata of an extracted cosmetic by searching the registered cosmeticdatabase 5 p through a key word search.

Additionally, as for the use finish date, in the case where a cosmeticof the same category is newly registered in the using cosmetic historydatabase 5 d, an inquiry may be made to the user whether or not use ofthe cosmetic of the same category already registered is finished, andthe use finish date of the cosmetic may be registered based on an answerto this inquiry. Alternatively, a cosmetic volume (ml) and a recommendeduse amount (ml/time) may be registered for each of the cosmetics in theregistered cosmetic database 5 p, and then a value obtained bymultiplying the number of times of using the cosmetic per day by arecommended use amount may be summed (accumulated) every day from theuse start date in the data management server 5 or the smartphone 3, andalso the summed value may be compared with a cosmetic volume, and in thecase where the value summed every day exceeds the volume or exceeds apredetermined proportion, such as 90%, of the volume, the user may beinformed by the dedicated application 5 j that the using cosmetic may berunning out or a residual amount is little, and inquired whether or notthe user has finished using the cosmetic, and the use finish date may beregistered based on the user's answer to the inquiry.

Additionally, on this occasion, a message encouraging the user topurchase the cosmetic remaining little may be displayed, or a URL of amail-order site of cosmetics linked to a page of the product remaininglittle may be displayed.

Additionally, a different cosmetic of the same category as the cosmeticremaining little may be displayed for introduction in response to thesituation that the cosmetic having been used until then is running outor remaining little. On this occasion, a URL linked to a web page of thecosmetic of a maker or a distributor firm of the cosmetic may bedisplayed.

As illustrated in Table 4, examples of the cosmetic category include afacial wash, a makeup remover, lotion, a milky lotion, cream, serum, awhitening lotion, and others, and each category is correlated to theabove-described number. Note that these cosmetic categories are onlyexamples and different categorization may be possible as well.

TABLE 4 Category NO. Facial wash 1 Makeup remover 2 Lotion 3 Milkylotion 4 Cream 5 Serum 6 Whitening lotion 7 Others 8

As illustrated in FIG. 5, in the care chart database 5 o as the usingcosmetic specific information storage unit, for example, a cosmetic usedby the user in the morning and night every day is optionally registered,correlated to the client ID of the user. In the above-described usingcosmetic history database 5 d, the use start date and use finish date ofthe cosmetic are registered, but in the care chart database 5 o, thecosmetic used in the morning and night every day can be registered. Thedata of the used cosmetic is input and transmitted to the datamanagement server 5 by means of a scheduler function described below.

Thus, in the care chart database 5 o, the client ID, a date, a time zonesuch as morning and night, and the using cosmetic data such as theabove-described product code are registered.

TABLE 5

For example, as illustrated on the right side of Table 5, the date andtime and the time zone such as morning and night and the product code ofthe used cosmetic are registered in the care chart database 5 o. Theproduct code is to be selected from the cosmetic information registeredthrough the above-described user cosmetic registration processing, andthe cosmetics registered in the above-described using cosmetic historydatabase 5 d are displayed on the screen of the smartphone, and theactually used cosmetic can be selected from the displayed cosmetics andinput.

In the beauty care database 5 c, as illustrated in Table 6, a beautycare kind code (type) indicating a kind of the skin care device 2, abeauty care start date and time indicating an operation start date andtime of the skin care device 2, and a beauty care finish date and timeindicating a subsequent operation finish date and time of the skin caredevice 2 are registered as a use history of each of the skin caredevices 2, correlated to the client ID. Note that preferably the startand finish date and time of the skin care device are automaticallyregistered by the dedicated application 5 j of the smartphone 3connected to the skin care device on the occasion of using the skin caredevice 2.

TABLE 6 Beauty care D/B Client ID Beauty care kind code Beauty carestart date and time Beauty care finish date and time Data indicatingdrive conditions and drive method

As illustrated in Table 7, in the detailed analysis result database 5 eas the analysis result storage unit, the above-described detailedanalysis result is registered correlated to the client ID, and aanalysis date and time (may include a measurement date and time of themeasurement data of which the detailed analysis is asked for) that is aday when the detailed analysis was executed and the analysis result dataare registered. Additionally, advice data and recommended cosmetic (skincare articles) data selected corresponding to the detailed analysisresult are registered. Note that the advice data and the recommendedcosmetic data are determined at an advice determining unit and arecommended cosmetic determining unit in a server of the cosmeticcompany A and a database of the cosmetic company B, but each advice andthe recommended cosmetic are basically registered correlated to each ofthe detailed analysis results, and the advice and the recommendedcosmetic are determined with determination of the detailed analysisresult.

The advice may include, for example, a matter that should be avoided indaily habit or the like and a massage method for skin. Additionally, therecommended cosmetics are a cosmetic and a skin care product suitablefor the skin condition found out from the detailed analysis result.

In the detailed analysis result, basically in the same manner as thesimple analysis, the measurement data preliminarily registered isclassified into ranks, the measurement data approximate to the inputmeasurement data is selected from the registered measurement data, and aanalysis result correlated to the measurement data is provided as theanalysis result. Here, a skin type, texture, spots, wrinkles, dryness,pores, color, etc. are diagnosed. That is, the number of diagnosingitems is larger than that of the simple analysis, and also the analysisresult is determined more in detail.

TABLE 7

Here, the skin type is determined, for example, as determined in theabove-described simple analysis, and basically, plural pieces of skinimage data for each skin type are registered in the skin reference valuedatabase 5 g for each skin type, and a skin type correlated to theregistered measurement data closest to the input measurement data is tobe selected by image recognition. Note that the basic method is the samein the detailed analysis, but the detailed analysis is more excellentthan the simple analysis in terms of capability of image recognition, anamount of image data registered in the skin reference value databaseused, and so on. Note that, as illustrated in Table 8, there arefollowing skin types: 1 normal skin, 2 sensitive skin, 3 oily skin, 4combination skin, 5 dry skin, 6 atopic skin, etc. and these codes areregistered in the detailed analysis result database 5 e.

TABLE 8 Skin type NO. Normal skin 1 Sensitive skin 2 Oily skin 3Combination skin 4 Dry skin 5 Atopic skin 6 Others 7

The skin reference value database 5 g is used for the simple skinanalysis as illustrated in Table 9, in which the skin condition isclassified into 10 ranks, for example, from bad condition to goodcondition, respectively as skin color analysis from the skin texture,skin spots, and image data, sebum analysis from image data, moistureanalysis from the evaporimeter data, and so on, corresponding to themeasurement data, and the respective ranks are correlated to the pluralpieces of the measurement data registered as described above.

Therefore, a rank indicating the skin condition can be obtained bysearching the skin reference database by using the measurement datameasured in the skin condition measuring device 1. This rank is to be aresult of the simple analysis.

TABLE 9 Skin reference value D/B Texture analysis (ranks 1 to 10) Spots(ranks 1 to 10) Skin color analysis (ranks 1 to 10) Sebum analysis(ranks 1 to 10) Moisture analysis (ranks 1 to 10)

As illustrated in Table 10, a product serial number of each of the skincondition measuring devices 1 and a product serial number of each of theskin care devices 2 are registered in the device information database 5i. Authentication may be executed with the product serial number storedin the device information database 5 i.

TABLE 10

Further, in the device information database 5 i, each of theabove-described product serial numbers of the skin condition measuringdevices 1 and the skin care devices 2 are correlated to the client ID.In the case where the serial number is authenticated as described aboveand each of the skin condition measuring devices 1 and skin care devices2 is authenticated, the authenticated serial number is registeredcorrelated to the client ID corresponding to the smartphone 3 connectedto each of the devices. In this case, for example, the one skincondition measuring device 1 or skin care device 2 can be used bymaximum three persons, that is, can be shared by the maximum threesmartphones 3. Therefore, when a fourth client ID is registered withrespect to one product serial number in the device information database,use of the skin condition measuring device 1 or skin care device 2having the above-described product serial number is inhibited via thesmartphone 3 of this fourth client ID. For example, an error occurs inthe above-described dedicated application 5 j of the smartphone 3 andthis causes the skin condition measuring device 1 or the skin caredevice 2 to be unusable.

As illustrated in Table 11, in the secondary data user access rightmanagement database 5 h, a user (contractor, for example, a company thatdevelops skin care articles, such as a cosmetic company), a client ID, auser's user ID, and a user password are set, and thus a secondary datauser can be authenticated.

Additionally, in the secondary data user access right managementdatabase 5 h, data of a user search level and a user access level, andthe billing information are registered correlated to the user ID. Notethat the billing information is data of billing in the case where asecondary data user searches data or acquires accessible data, and datausage fee is charged to the user based on the billing information.

Additionally, the usage fee varies depending on the search levels andthe axel levels, and the more the number of searchable keywords (searchitem) is, the higher the usage fee is, and the higher the axel level is,the higher the usage fee is.

TABLE 11

Additionally, in Table 11, differences of the search key words (searchitems) due to differences of concrete search levels are indicated, andalso differences of accessible data, namely, data that can be output asthe search result due to the difference of the access level areindicated. The respective search items in search level 1 and searchlevel 2 indicated in Display 11 correspond to data blocks as a datagroup including the data respectively correlated to the client IDs. Forexample, the measurement data and the analysis result data are dividedinto blocks for each measuring method.

Note that age, sex, address 1, address 2, and address 3 are the dataregistered in the above-described client personal information managementdatabase 5 a, but the databases accessible by the secondary data userare the skin history database 5 b, the using cosmetic history database 5d, etc. excluding the client personal information management database.

That is, the secondary data user is not allowed to see the data of anindividual user ID, an individual password, a name, a birthday, a wholeresidential address including address 4, an e-mail address, billinginformation, and a serial number as predetermined personal information,and the user is not allowed to access the client personal informationmanagement database 5 a.

Therefore, a user sees the information of age, sex, address 1, address2, and address 3 by the skin history database 5 b where the data isregistered correlated to the client IDs, or by an independent database.

Here, the search levels are levels obtained by classifying, into levels,the search items in which search conditions are input. The search itemsare set in a part of data blocks among the data blocks of theabove-described measurement data, analysis result data and accompanyingdata, and correspond to the respective search items of search levels 1and 2 in Display 11. That is, as the data groups, there are the datablock of address 1, the data block of age, etc. and these data blocksare set as the search items.

The search items indicated in search level 1 include information thatcan specify each of the individual clients from the items of the dataregistered in the client personal information management database, andthe items of the accompanying data excluding important information suchas the billing information. Additionally, search level 2 is higher thansearch level 1, and search level 2 includes all of the search itemsclassified into search level 1. That is, each search level includes thesearch items of the lower search level. In other words, the itemsclassified into search level 2 includes the search items classified intosearch level 1 and further additional search items, and the cosmetic usehistory is added as the search items as illustrated in Table 11.

The access level is a level obtained by classifying, into levels, thedata blocks to which the data which can be output as search resultsbelongs. For example, the measurement data includes, as described above,the data blocks of the input skin image, the input data of theevaporimeter, the input data of the melanin meter, and the like, and inthe case of wishing to acquire only the input skin data as the searchresult, the data block of the input skin image is selected, therebyoutputting only the data retrieved from the input skin image.

Additionally, in the case of level classification of the data blocks ofthe access levels, a higher access level includes the data blocksclassified into a lower access level.

Here, in search level 2 indicated in Display 11, it is possible toretrieve various kinds of the measurement data and the analysis resultdata as the search items based on the using cosmetic history data of thecosmetic for skin care, such as the cleansing history data, facial washhistory data, lotion history data, serum history data, and moisturizingcream history data. Note that the history data of the using cosmetics isdata to be registered in the later-described using cosmetic history data5 d. Note that the classification of the cosmetics for skin care is anexample and may be the classification of the using cosmetic history dataas well.

In the using cosmetic history data, a product coat that can specify acosmetic, and a use time of the cosmetic (for example, a use start date,and a use finish date in the case of stopping using or finishing using))are registered. For example, in the case of wishing to see themeasurement data and analysis result data for a person using a specificcosmetic and then searching this using cosmetic history data by usingthe specific cosmetic as a search key, it becomes possible to retrieve,for example, the measurement data and analysis result data for a periodserving as the use time of the using cosmetic. The analysis result datais a result of analyzing (diagnosing) the measurement data, for example,by the skin condition measuring device 1, and as described below, theskin condition is represented by a score, and the higher the score is,the better the skin condition is.

In the case of retrieving the analysis result data (analysis result)based on the using cosmetic history data as described above, a analysisresult of the skin condition during the use period of the cosmetic canbe obtained. In this case, for example, whether the score of theanalysis result of the skin condition tends to increase or decrease,whether there is progress at a high score or at a low score while thecosmetic is being used, and the like can be investigated for many users.

That is, effect of the cosmetic can be investigated. Additionally, theanalysis result data can be searched by searching plural kinds of thecosmetics classified into the plural kinds as described above as thesearch items, and it is also possible to determine synergetic effectsand offset of the effects of the plurality of cosmetics, and the like.Additionally the plural kinds of the analysis results based on the kindsof the skin condition measuring devices 1, such as the result on thetexture and spots based on the skin image, the result from the melaninmeter and the result from the evaporimeter, can be obtained as theanalysis results, and therefore it is also possible to determine whichanalysis result each of the cosmetics is effective or ineffective for,and the like. As a result, retrieving the analysis result data by usingthe cosmetics in use as the search keys is extremely useful fordevelopment of the cosmetics.

Further, the data management server 5 in the management system for skincondition measurement analysis information includes the calibrationdatabase 5 m. As illustrated in Table 12, in the calibration database 5m, image data in the case of imaging a black and white pattern by thecamera for skin under predetermined conditions is registered, correlatedto ranks of brightness, and image data in the case of imaging a colorpattern is registered correlated to ranks of color tones. For example,ranks 0 to 10 are registered as the ranks of brightness and ranks 0 to10 for respective colors of blue, green, and red are registered as theranks of color tone.

While the calibration data is to be obtained by comparing the registeredimage data correlated to each of the ranks with the measured image data,for example, the rank 5 is set as a standard, and when the rank is lowerthan this rank, color is dark or the corresponding color is pale, andwhen the rank is higher than the rank 5, color is bright or thecorresponding color is deep. The brightness or color of the LED light isadjusted and the image data is corrected by using this calibration data,thereby suppressing influence of individual difference of each camerafor skin and the like.

TABLE 12 Calibration D/B Brightness (rank) 1 to 10 Blue (rank) 1 to 10Red (rank) 1 to 10 Green (rank) 1 to 10

In the skin care database 5 l in which the control methods for the skincare device 2 are registered correlated to the ranks as the analysisresult data. For example, the ranks in the simple analysis where theabove-described skin reference value database is used are correlated tothe control methods for the skin care device 2, as illustrated in Table13.

For example, in the skin care database 5 l under the assumption of thecase where the skin condition measuring device 1 is the camera for skinin the texture mode and the skin care device 2 is the ion cleansingdevice and the case where the output level of the ion cleansing devicecan be replaced, for example, in three steps, the highest output levelis set to 3 and the operation time is set to 15 minutes in the casewhere the skin texture rank is rank 1 to rank 3. Additionally, in thecase where the texture rank is 4 to 7, the output level is set to midlevel 2 and the operation time is set to 10 minutes. Additionally, inthe case where the texture rank is 8 to 10, the output level is set tolowest level 1 and the operation time is set to 5 minutes.

Thus, the skin care device 2 can be efficiently used corresponding tothe skin condition.

TABLE 13 Skin care D/B Texture analysis (rank) 1-3 4-7 8-10 Ioncleansing device Output level 3 2 1 Operation time 15 min. 10 min. 5min.

In the schedule database 5 n of the data management server 5 in whichuse schedule data for the skin care device 2 is registered correlated tothe ranks as the analysis result data, for example, the ranks in thesimple analysis using the above-described skin reference value databaseare correlated to the use schedule for the skin care device 2, asillustrated in Table 14.

For example, in the case where the measuring unit is the camera for skinin the texture mode and the skin care device 2 is the ion cleansingdevice, ion cleansing is to be executed every day when the skin texturerank is rank 1 to rank 3 in the schedule database 5 n. Additionally,when the texture rank is 4 to 7, the ion cleansing is to be executedthree times a week, and when the texture rank is 8 to 10, the ioncleansing is to be executed once a week.

Thus, the skin care device 2 can be efficiently used corresponding tothe skin condition.

Note that, from the schedule in the schedule database 5 n, a user mayset, for example, a concrete day of the week and a time to execute theion cleansing to make a more concrete schedule.

TABLE 14 Schedule D/B Camera for skin Texture 1-3 4-7 8-10 analysis(rank) Ion cleansing device 7 days a week 3 days a week 1 day a weekSchedule

On the occasion of registering a cosmetic in the above-described usingcosmetic history database 5 d, the registered cosmetic database 5 p inwhich the data of the respective cosmetics is registered is referred to.For example, the cosmetic that a user uses is retrieved from theregistered cosmetic database 5 p by using a bar code (JAN code), a keyword search, etc., to be registered in the skin history database 5 b.

Note that a brand name (product name) and a product code as theinformation registered for each of the cosmetics in the registeredcosmetic database 5 p are the cosmetic specific information that canspecify the cosmetic, and it is difficult to specify the cosmetic byother items information. Here, the product name and product code thatcan specify the cosmetics are adopted as the cosmetic specificinformation, and referred to as cosmetic information in combination withinformation such as volume, a price, and a release date that isdifficult to specify the cosmetics. Note that the maker name may becombined with the product name into the cosmetic specific informationfor specifying the cosmetics.

As illustrated in Table 15, the registered cosmetic database 5 p isdivided into a user input permitted item, a maker input item, and asystem automatic input item.

TABLE 15

These are the items under the assumption that cosmetics not registeredyet are to be registered, and for example, in the case of creating theregistered cosmetic database 5 p at the time of system construction orthe like, an operator, a system administrator, etc. of the datamanagement server 5 are to register existing cosmetics. In this case, itis difficult to register all of the cosmetics as there are manycosmetics. For example, it is difficult to register the cosmetics ofsmall and medium-sized makers abroad. Additionally, sometimes evenrelatively major cosmetic may be slipped out of registration.

Additionally, it is necessary to register a new product because the newproduct is not registered in the registered cosmetic database 5 p. Inthe case where the system administrator investigates and inputs releaseof all of new products, such a case is costly.

Thus, according to the present embodiment, the data of thenon-registered cosmetics in the using cosmetic history database 5 p isinput by a user and a person in charge of a maker side, as describedabove.

On the occasion of user cosmetic registration as described later, dataof the cosmetic which cannot be retrieved with a JAN code or othersearch key word can be written in the registered cosmetic database 5 pas non-registered data.

In this case, the user inputs (temporary registration) a cosmeticcategory, a maker name, a brand name, volume, and a product code (JANcode) as the user input permitted item for the non-registered cosmeticvia the smartphone 3 as a temporary registration unit. Note that theuser may not input all of the items, and may input, for example, theproduct name and maker name as required items. When the product name,maker, etc. of the cosmetic that has not registered are input by theuser, the cosmetic maker management database 5 q (cosmetic maker contactinformation storage unit) illustrated in Table 16 is searched based onthe input maker name, and a person in charge of the maker and an e-mailaddress of the maker are readout. An e-mail in which a preset sentencefor requesting registration of the cosmetic, a URL of a web page forregistration, a maker ID, a maker password, etc. are written is created,and transmitted to the read out e-mail address of the maker forabove-described person in charge. Note that, here, the e-mailtransmission to the person in charge of the maker is executed by thedata management server 5, but the data management server 5 may merelyassist creating the e-mail, the operator may eventually executetransmission of the e-mail, and the data management server 5 functionsas a communication assisting unit. Note that the communication assistingunit may execute processing from e-mail creation to e-mail transmission.

TABLE 16 Cosmetic maker management D/B Maker ID Maker password Makere-mail address Maker name Name of person in charge

The person in charge having received the e-mail, for example, accessesthe page for registration written in the e-mail and receivesauthentication using the maker ID and maker password, and thus the datacan be input in the maker input item in the registered cosmetic database5 p (registration permitting unit). However, what is accessible on thisoccasion is only a record in which the maker name corresponding to themaker ID input at the time of authentication is registered. Therefore,authentication is executed using the above-described maker ID andpassword such that a record in which a maker name of other company isregistered cannot be accessed by the person in charge of the maker.

There is high probability that the person in charge of the makerregister information of the own company product, for example, in thecase of determining that a propaganda effect, user support, etc. areexpected from registration of the information of the own company product(cosmetic) in major cosmetic-related sites the person in charge knows,and in cosmetic-related sites operated by major enterprises

The person in charge of the maker can input the input items including arelease date, a production termination date for a cosmetic of whichproduction has already ended, an appearance photograph, a price, arecommended use amount per time (per day), ingredient data, effect byeach of the above-described skin types, PA and SPF against ultraviolet,a color number, and so on. Additionally, the person in charge of themaker can write in the user input permitted item, and can write data inan item without user input, and an item having mistake.

Thus, a work for new registration of the cosmetic by the operator or thelike on the data management server 5 side becomes unnecessary, and themanagement cost on the data management server 5 side can be reduced.

Note that, as the ingredient data, effective ingredients used in thecosmetic are preliminarily registered, and the presence or absence ofthe effective ingredients is to be input. Additionally, an effectiveingredient not preliminarily registered may also be registered as othereffective ingredients.

Additionally, in the ingredient data, not only the effective ingredientscontained in the cosmetic but also an ingredient not contained in thecosmetic are preliminarily registered, and in the case of inputting theingredient not contained as being present, the fact that the cosmeticdoes not contain the ingredient is to be input. For example, whenfragrance-free is selected, the fact that no fragrance is contained isto be indicated.

Next, a description will be given for the management method for skincondition measurement analysis information in the management system forskin condition measurement analysis information according to the presentembodiment with reference to flowcharts in FIGS. 6 to 18.

In the method according to the present embodiment, first the dedicatedapplication 5 j for managing the skin condition measurement analysisinformation is downloaded and installed in the smartphone.

User registration processing after starting the dedicated application 5j will be described with reference to a flowchart in FIG. 6.

When the application 5 j (step Sa1) is started, it is determined whetheror not processing of user registration has been already executed (stepSa2).

Since the user registration has not been executed on the occasion ofstarting the application 5 j initially, the user registration is to beexecuted. When the application 5 j is started at the second time orlater, the user registration is already finished, and therefore userregistration processing is finished and the application is to bestarted.

In the user registration, input of the individual user ID and individualpassword is encouraged (step Sa3), and after the user inputs theindividual user ID and the individual password, the input individualuser ID and individual password input are transmitted from thesmartphone 3 to a management terminal of the data management server 5(step Sa4). Note that the management terminal is a terminal foroperating the data management server 5 and basically apart of the datamanagement server 5.

In the data management server 5, the client ID is automaticallygenerated in response to receipt of the individual user ID andindividual password (step Sb1). Additionally, processing of registeringthe received individual user ID and individual password in the personalinformation database as the client personal information managementdatabase 5 a (step Sb2).

Additionally, in the smartphone 3, the set user ID is registered in astorage unit inside the smartphone 3 (step Sa5). Next, input of personalinformation is encouraged, and the above-described personal informationsuch as a name and a birthday is input (step Sa6). When the personalinformation is input, the personal information is transmitted from thesmartphone 3 to the data management server 5 (step Sa1) and the userregistration processing ends in the smartphone 3.

Additionally, in data management server 5, the personal informationreceived in the client personal information management database 5 a isregistered correlated to the individual user ID and the client ID (stepSb3), and the processing is finished.

After the user registration processing is finished as described above, amenu screen is displayed. On the menu screen, the following menus aredisplayed: 1. register sensor, 2. skin diagnose, 3. detailed skinanalysis result display, 4. beauty care, 5. skin condition improvementdetermination, and 6. skin history display.

On this occasion, in the case where the application has not been startedby connecting the skin condition measuring device 1, execution of sensorregistration processing in menu 1 is encouraged.

The sensor registration processing will be described with reference to aflowchart in FIG. 7.

At the stage where menu 1 is selected or thereafter, it is determinedwhether or not the skin condition measuring device 1 (sensor) isconnected (step Sc1), and the smartphone is to be in a state of waitingfor the skin condition measuring device 1 to be connected.

When the skin condition measuring device 1 is connected to thesmartphone 3 with the USB interface 13, the data indicating the sensortype is read from the data of a device descriptor of the USB interface13 as described above and also the product serial number is read from astring descriptor (step Sc2). It is determined from the product serialnumber whether or not the skin condition measuring device 1 has beenalready registered (step Sc3). In the case where the skin conditionmeasuring device 1 has been already registered, the processing ends.

In the case where the skin condition measuring device 1 has not beenregistered, transmission is made to the sensor type and the datamanagement server 5 of the product serial number (step Sc4).

The data management server 5 receives the sensor type and the productserial number (step Sd1). The data management server 5 authenticates theproduct serial number (step Sd2). Note that the product serial number isset by a predetermined algorithm and a character string randomly set isless likely to become a legitimate product serial number. Based on thealgorithm, it is to be determined whether or not the product serialnumber is a legitimate number. Note that all of the legitimate productserial numbers may be registered in the device information database 5 i,and in the case where a product serial number is not retrievable fromthe device information database 5 i, authentication may be deemed tohave failed.

Additionally, in the case where authentication of the product serialnumber has failed, a corresponding error message, for example, an errormessage indicating that the sensor is unusable is generated (step Sd3).

Additionally, in the case where authentication of the product serialnumber has succeeded, in the device information database 5 it isdetermined whether or not the same product serial number is alreadycorrelated to the client ID corresponding to other smartphone 3, andalso in the case where the same product serial number is alreadycorrelated to the client ID of other smartphone 3, it is determinedwhether or not the number of the correlated clients IDs is less thanthree (step Sd4).

Here, in the case where three client IDs are already correlated, amessage indicating that “this skin condition measuring device 1 is notusable with this smartphone 3 because the number of smartphones 3 usingthis skin condition measuring device 1 is over the limit” is generatedas a corresponding error message (step Sd3).

In the case where the number of the client IDs correlated to the productserial number is less than three, the skin condition measuring device 1of this product serial number becomes usable. In this case, the sensortype and the product serial number are registered in the client personalinformation management database 5 a as a sensor information database andin the device information database 5 i (step Sd5).

Next, the data indicating authentication success or authenticationfailure is transmitted to the smartphone 3 as a processing result in thedata management server 5 (step Sd6). Additionally, in the case ofauthentication failure, the above-described error message is transmittedto the smartphone 3.

The smartphone 3 receives the data (step Sc5), and it is determinedwhether or not the data indicating authentication success is receivedand thus it is determined whether or not registration has beencompleted. (Step Sc6)

In the case of registration failure, the received error message isdisplayed on the display (step Sc7), and in the case of completion ofregistration, the sensor type and the product serial number areregistered in the storage unit inside the smartphone 3 (step Sc8), andon the occasion where the skin condition measuring device 1 is connectedto the smartphone 3, the registered product serial number is confirmed,thereby controlling not to execute authentication in the case where theserial number is already registered as described above.

Next, the skin analysis in menu 2 will be described with reference to aflowchart in FIG. 8. First, on the occasion of starting the application,the menu screen is displayed. Here, in the case where the skin conditionmeasuring device 1 is connected, indetermination on whether or not theskin condition measuring device 1 is connected (step Se1), it isdetermined that the skin condition measuring device 1 is connected, andit is determined whether or not an authentication character string asthe sensor ID is already registered (step Se2); in the case where thesensor is not registered, the above-described sensor registrationprocessing is executed (step Se3), and in the case where the sensor isalready registered, the skin condition measuring device 1 becomesoperable; and when the skin condition measuring device 1 is operated,the measurement data is received from the skin condition measuringdevice 1 (sensor) (step Se4).

Next, whether or not the detailed analysis is desired is input, and forexample, which enterprise is to be selected from among a plurality ofenterprises providing the detailed analysis is input (step Se5).

Further, the measurement data (sensor data) received from the skincondition measuring device 1, the client ID stored in the smartphone 3,and a data input date and time when the measurement data was receivedfrom the skin condition measuring device 1 are transmitted to the datamanagement server 5 (step Se6).

In the data management server 5, the client ID, the measurement data,the data input date and time are registered in the skin history database5 b (step Sf1).

The analysis on the skin condition is executed based on the measurementdata (step Sf2). That is, the approximate measurement data is selectedfrom the measurement data registered in the skin reference valuedatabase, and the ranks for the respective items corresponding to themeasurement data are determined (step Sf3).

The skin analysis result and/or the determined ranks are registered inthe skin history database 5 b (step Sf4).

In the above-described steps, it is determined whether the detailed skinanalysis is desired (step Sf5) and in the case where the detailed skinanalysis is desired, the measurement data and necessary data for thedetailed analysis (e.g., age, etc.) are transmitted to a server of adetailed analysis supplier such as a cosmetic company (step Sf6).

After receiving the data from the data management server 5 (step Sg1),the server of the cosmetic company transmits a message indicatingacceptance of the request for the detailed skin analysis to the datamanagement server 5 (step Sg2). Moreover, the detailed skin analysis isstarted. As for the detailed skin analysis, here, the sensor data, andthe data of detailed skin analysis result, etc. are exchanged via acommunication line. Alternatively, the skin analysis supplier may bepermitted to access a specified portion of the skin history database 5 band a specified portion of the detailed analysis result database 5 esuch that the skin analysis supplier may directly access the databases 5b and 5 e to obtain the sensor data and write the detailed analysisresult in the detailed analysis result database 5 e.

The data management server 5 receives the above-described message (stepSf7) and also creates display data for displaying a result of the simpleanalysis executed in the data management server 5 on the smartphone 3(step Sf8).

This display data is transmitted to the smartphone 3 (step Sf9).

The display data is received in the smartphone 3 (step Se7), anddisplayed on the display of the smartphone 3 as the simple skin analysisresult (step Se8).

Additionally, in the server of the cosmetic company as the server of theskin analysis supplier, on the occasion where the detailed skin analysisends (step Sg3), the data of the detailed skin analysis result istransmitted to the data management server 5 (step Sg4).

The data is received in the data management server 5 (step Sf10), andthe data of the detailed skin analysis result is written in the detailedanalysis result database 5 e (step Sf11). Further, the data indicatingcompletion of the detailed skin analysis is transmitted to the user ofthe smartphone 3 (step Sf12). As for the detailed skin analysis, here,the result is informed such that the user can confirm the result on thescreen by using a command of the analysis result display, but thedetailed analysis result may be sent via e-mail as well.

The smartphone 3 receives the data from the data management server 5(step Se9) and also the data indicating completion of the detailed skinanalysis is displayed on the display of the smartphone 3 as the message(step Se10). Note that the result of the completed detailed skinanalysis can be displayed on the smartphone 3 side by the user readingthe detailed analysis result database 5 e of the data management server5 by using the smartphone 3, but the detailed analysis result may bedisplayed on the smartphone 3 by using the electronic mail from the datamanagement server 5 and the server of the cosmetic company.

Note that in a server 61 of the skin analysis supplier, the data istransmitted from the data management server 5 and received to obtain thenecessary data for the detailed skin analysis; however, the server 62 ofthe skin analysis supplier may be used as a client to access thespecified portion of the skin history database 5 b or the detailedanalysis result database 5 e of the data management server 5 to whichaccessing is permitted, so as to directly read and write the data.

Next, Display processing for the detailed skin analysis result in menu 3will be described with reference to a flowchart of FIG. 9.

In the smartphone 3, a question “a latest result or a past result” isdisplayed to have a user select one detailed skin analysis result to bedisplayed between the two results (step Sh1). It is determined whetherthe detailed skin analysis result chosen for display is the latestresult or the past result (step Sh2). In the case where the detailedskin analysis result chosen for display is not the latest result, arequest for date and time data of the past detailed skin analysis ismade from the smartphone 3 to the data management server 5 (step Sh3).

The data management server 5 receives the above-described request (stepSi1), and the date and time data of the past detailed skin analysis iscollected with reference to the skin history database 5 b or thedetailed analysis result database 5 e (step Si2).

The collected date and time data is transmitted from the data managementserver 5 to the smartphone 3 (step Si3).

The smartphone 3 receives the date and time data (step Sh4) and displaysdates and times of the past detailed skin analysis such that the usercan select a date and time (step Sh5).

When the user selects a date and time from screen display of the datesand times, a result of the detailed skin analysis on a date and timecorresponding to the selected date and time is specified (step Sh6), anda request for transmitting the detailed skin analysis result of thespecified date and time is made (step Sh7).

Note that in the case where the latest detailed skin analysis result isdetermined to be displayed in step Sh2, the latest detailed skinanalysis result is specified in step Sh6, and a request for transmittingthe latest detailed skin analysis result is to be made in step Sh7.

The data management server 5 receives the request (step Si4), andsearches, for example, the detailed analysis result database 5 e basedon the received data (step Si5), and then transmits the detailed skinanalysis result of the specified date and time to the smartphone 3together with the advice data and the recommended cosmetic data (stepSi6).

The smartphone 3 having received the data (step Sh8) displays thedetailed skin analysis result (step Sh9). On this occasion, therecommended cosmetic and the advice are displayed.

Next, beauty care processing in menu 4 will be described with referenceto a flowchart in FIG. 10.

In the case of selecting menu 4, it is determined whether or not anybeauty care as the skin care device 2 is attached (step Sj1), and in thecase where the skin care device is not attached, the processing enters astandby state until the skin care device 2 is attached by returning tothe determination processing again.

In the case where the skin care device 2 is attached, the type andproduct serial number of the skin care device 2 are read by thesmartphone 3 as in the case of the skin condition measuring device 1,and it is determined whether or not the product serial number has beenalready registered, as in the case of the skin condition measuringdevice 1 (step Sj2), and in the case where the product serial number hasnot been registered yet, the processing of registering the productserial number of the skin care device 2 is executed as in the case ofthe skin condition measuring device 1 (step Sj3). Since the registrationprocessing is the same as the above-describe sensor registrationprocessing, a description thereof will be omitted.

In the case where the product serial number is already registered, it isdetermined whether the skin care device 2 has started driving (stepSj4), and in the case where the skin care device has not started drivingyet, the processing enters a standby state for driving start byreturning again to the determination on whether or not driving isstarted.

The determination on whether driving is started or not is executed bymonitoring a power source of the skin care device 2.

After the skin care device 2 starts driving, it is determined whether ornot the skin care device 2 stops driving (step Sj5), and in the casewhere the skin care device does not stop driving, the processing entersa standby state for driving stop by returning to the determination onwhether or not driving is stopped. In the case where the skin caredevice 2 stops driving, a date and time of driving start and a time fromdriving start to driving stop are stored in the storage unit inside thesmartphone 3 (step Sj6).

It is determined whether or not the skin care device 2 is to be detached(step Sj7), and in the case where the skin care device is not to bedetached, the processing enters again a standby state for driving startof the skin care device 2, while in the case where the skin care device2 is detached under this state, the processing returns to step Sj7without waiting for the skin care device 2 to start driving and it isdetermined that skin care device 2 is detached.

In the case where communication with the data management server 5 isavailable at the stage where the skin care device 2 is detached, theabove-described driving start date and time and driving time of the skincare device 2 are transmitted to the data management server 5 (stepSj8). Note that, in the case where a communication line with the datamanagement server 5 is not connected, the stored driving date and timeand driving time are collectively transmitted to the data managementserver 5 after the communication line is connected.

The data management server 5 receives the driving start date and timeand the driving time of the skin care device 2 (step Ski), and registersthe received driving start date and time and driving time in the beautycare database 5 c.

Next, skin condition improvement determination in menu 5 (comparisonbetween the latest analysis result and a analysis result on a base date)will be described with reference to a flowchart in FIG. 11.

When menu 5 is selected, a message encouraging a user to input the basedate in the comparison of analysis results is displayed (step S11).

When the base date is input, the input base date is set. Note that, inthe case where the base date is not input within a predetermined time,the base date previously input when menu 5 is selected may be used asthe base date (step S12).

That is, in the case where it is determined that the base date is notinput within the predetermined time after menu 5 is selected, in thedetermination on whether or not the base date is input (step S13), theprevious base date stored in the storage unit inside the smartphone 3 isset (step S15). In the case where the base date is input before thepredetermined time passes, the input base date is stored in the storageunit inside the smartphone 3 (step S14).

When the base date is determined, the base date is transmitted from thesmartphone 3 to the data management server 5 (step S16). The datamanagement server 5 receives the base date (step Sm1), and searches theskin history database 5 b for the simple analysis result data of thereceived base date (step Sm2).

Next, the data of latest simple analysis result is searched from theskin history database 5 b (step Sm3).

Next, it is determined whether an option has been set (step Sm4), and inthe case where the option has not been set, the data of simple analysisresult of the base date and the data of the latest simple analysisresult are transmitted to the smartphone 3 (step Sm7).

Note that, as the option, the simple analysis result of the base dateand. Not only the latest simple analysis result but also all ofmonitored analysis results may be searched (step Sm5). Further, historydata of a cosmetic used between the base date and the date and time ofthe latest analysis result may be read as the option by referring to theusing cosmetic history database (step Sm6).

In the case where such an option has been set, the data of the simpleanalysis results between the base date and the latest, and the historydata of a cosmetic used therebetween are transmitted to the smartphone3, as described above (step Sm7).

The smartphone 3 receives the above-described data (step S17), andbasically displays the data of the simple analysis result of the basedate and the data of the latest simple analysis result in a comparisonstate (step S18).

Additionally, in the case where the option is set (step S19), the simpleanalysis results between the base date and the latest are displayed andalso the cosmetic use history during this period is displayed (stepS110).

Note that, in the data management server 5, the use history of the skincare device 2 from the base date to the date and time of the latestsimple analysis may be acquired by referring to the beauty care database5 c, and the acquired use history of the skin care device 2 may bedisplayed.

By simultaneously displaying the simple analysis result of the base dateand the latest simple analysis result, whether skin condition isimproved, not changed, or deteriorated can be found out.

Additionally, transition of the skin condition can be found out more indetail by displaying all of the simple analysis results between thesimple analysis result of the base date and the latest simple analysisresult.

Additionally, how effective the cosmetic and the skin care device 2 arecan be determined by seeing the use history of the cosmetic and the usehistory of the skin care device 2 therebetween. Note that the sameprocessing may be executed for the detailed analysis result instead ofthe simple analysis result, and the detailed analysis result of the basedate and the latest detailed analysis result may be comparably displayedon the smartphone 3.

Next, the skin history display in menu 6 (displaying the skin historyfrom the base date to the latest skin analysis) will be described withreference to a flowchart in FIG. 12.

When menu 6 is selected, processing of displaying a message encouraginginput of the base date in the comparison of the analysis results isexecuted (step So1).

In this case, the base date is to be input by the user (step So2). Notethat, in the case where the base date is not input within apredetermined time, the base date input previously when menu 6 isselected is adopted as the base date.

That is, in the case where the base date is not input within thepredetermined time after menu 6 is selected, the previous base datestored in the storage unit inside the smartphone 3 is set. In the casewhere the base date is input before the predetermined time passes, theinput base date is stored in the storage unit inside the smartphone 3.

That is, it is determined whether the base date is input within thepredetermined time (step So3). In the case where a new base date isinput, the input base date is stored in the storage unit provided insidethe smartphone 3 (step So4), and in the case where no new base date isinput, the base date previously stored inside is read out for use (stepSo5).

When the base date is determined, the base date is transmitted from thesmartphone 3 to the data management server 5 (step So6). The datamanagement server 5 receives the base date (step Sp1), and searches theskin history database 5 b to acquires the simple analysis result dataduring the period from the received base date to the latest simpleanalysis result (step Sp2).

Next, it is determined whether an option has been set (step Sp3), and inthe case where the option has not been set, data of all of the simpleanalysis results during the period from the base date until obtainmentof the latest simple analysis result is transmitted to the smartphone 3(step Sp6).

Additionally, in the case where the option has been set, the use historydata of the skin care device 2 from the base date to the date and timeof the latest simple analysis is acquired as the option by referring tothe beauty care database 5 c in the data management server 5 (step Sp4).

Additionally, in the case where the option has been set, history data ofa cosmetic used between the base date and the date and time of thelatest analysis result is acquired as the option by referring to theusing cosmetic history database 5 d (step Sp5).

In the case where the above-described option has been set, the data ofthe simple analysis result between the base date and the date and timeof the latest simple analysis and the history data of the skin caredevice 2 and a cosmetic used therebetween are transmitted to thesmartphone 3.

The smartphone 3 receives the above-described data (step So7) anddisplays the all of the simple analysis results between the base dateand the date and time of the latest simple analysis as the history inchronological order, for example, in a graph (step So8). Additionally,it is determined whether or not the option has been set (step So9), andin the case where the option has been set, the use history for the skincare device 2 and the use history of the cosmetic during the period aredisplayed (step So10).

In this case also, the progress of the skin condition can be found outand also the effects of the cosmetic and the skin care device 2 can bedetermined. Additionally, in this case also, the detailed analysisresult may be acquired and displayed on the smartphone 3 instead of thesimple analysis result.

Thus, whether the skin condition is improved or not can be determined byseeing the measurement data and the analysis results as the dataarranged in chronological order.

Additionally, a moving image can be displayed by sequentially displayingthe image data as the measurement data, but the number of the data ismore likely to be small. In this case, change in the skin can be seen assmooth image data by complementing gaps between the respective imagedata by morphing.

Additionally, the skin condition is not necessarily kept in a goodcondition and may deteriorate temporarily. For example, in the summertime, the pores may stand out. Under such a situation, a user may notwant to see the magnified image of one's own skin. Therefore, the imagedata during the time when the skin condition is not good may be cut offin the case of clearly indicating chronological change in the skin bysequentially displaying the image data as described above. In this case,morphing is applied between the previous image data and the subsequentimage data of the cut-off image data, and thus the deteriorated skincondition can be made unclear although the image data is partly cut off.Note that since the deteriorated skin condition is made unclear,preferably an advice on the deteriorated skin condition is provided byvoice or screen display.

Additionally, the smartphone 3 is provided with a storage area in whichcontrol data for the skin care device is stored, and the user can changethe setting to update the control data. For example, the user canoptionally set the output level of the skin care device. Additionally,the control data stored in the storage area is accessible by the datamanagement server 5 and controllable from the data management server.

Next, a method of inputting the using cosmetic data in the usingcosmetic history database 5 d will be described with reference to aflowchart in FIG. 13. The user inputs a cosmetic type, such asfoundation, a milky lotion, and lotion, from the smartphone 3 (stepSu1). Next, a name of the cosmetic is input (step Su2). Next, it isdetermined whether or not input is completed (step Su3). Here, in thecase of registering a plurality of cosmetics, the cosmetic types areinput again. In the case where input is completed, the input data andthe client ID are transmitted to the data management server 5. The datamanagement server receives the input data (step Sv1), and the cosmeticname and the data input date are stored in the storage areacorresponding to the client ID in the using cosmetic history database 5d.

Based on the using cosmetic history database 5 d, a time when thecosmetic runs out can be estimated from the registration date of thecosmetic. In this case, cosmetic advice can be provided at the time whenthe cosmetic runs out.

Next, with reference to a flowchart in FIG. 14. A method of acquiringthe above-described measurement data and the accompanying data attachedthereto from the contractor client 6 as a secondary user terminal willbe described.

First, a user ID and a password are input from the contractor client 6of the cosmetic company or the like (step Sq1).

Next, a search condition is input (step Sq2). For example, a searchcondition key is input. Note that the search condition here includes theabove-described search items. For example, in the case where the searchitem is age, the search condition (search condition key, searchcondition expression) is to be, combination of the search item and arange of the data serving as the search item for narrowing down thedata, for example, such as “age is from 30 to 40”. Note that what iscombined with the search item is not limited the range of the dataserving as the search item, and may be any condition that can narrowdown the data, such as a key word. For example, in the case of searchingthe measurement data and the analysis result data by setting as thesearch item the cosmetic that a user is using, a condition may beadopted where a key word such as a kind of cosmetic, a cosmetic name,and a maker name of the cosmetic is combined with the search item inorder to narrow down the cosmetic.

Next, output request data of requesting the data to be output (kind ofdata to be output) under the above-described search condition is input(step Sq3). The input user ID, password, search condition, and outputrequest data are transmitted to the data management server 5 (step Sq4).

The data management server 5 receives the above-described data (stepSr1), and authentication processing for the user ID and password isexecuted (step Sr2). An authentication result is determined (step Sr3),and in the case where authentication is not successful, an error messageindicating the fact that authentication is not successful is created(step Sr9).

In the case where the user ID and the password are authenticated,whether or not the received search condition is the permitted searchcondition for the user as the secondary user of the data is collated byreferring to a user search level in the secondary data user access rightmanagement database 5 h (step Sr4).

A collation result is determined (step Sr5), and in the case where thesearch condition is a non-permitted search condition according to thecollation result, an error message corresponding to the collation resultis created (step Sr9). Additionally, in the case the collation of searchcondition is successful, next, whether or not the received outputrequest is the data of the permitted access level for the secondary useris collated by referring to the user access level (step Sr6). Acollation result is determined (step Sr7), and in the case wherecollation is not successful, an error message corresponding to thecollation result is created (step Sr9).

In the case where collation of the output request data is successful,search is executed under the collated search condition, and also thedata requested as the output request data is acquired from each database(step Sr8), and the acquired data is transmitted (step Sr10).Additionally, the created error message is transmitted in the case wherecollation is not successful in any of the stages.

The secondary user terminal (contractor client 6) receives the data(step Sq5), and it is determined whether or not the data is the errormessage (step Sq6), and in the case of error, the error message isdisplayed (step Sq7), and in the case where the data is the datarequested to output, the data is displayed on the screen or output as afile and also stored (step Sq8).

Thus, the secondary user of the measurement data, etc. can acquire thedata in the range of the kinds of data set by the access level, usingthe search condition key set by the search level (e.g., searchitem+search range). That is, the data that is worth the cost can beacquired and utilized.

Next, a modified example of data acquisition by the secondary user ofthe data will be described.

As illustrated in a flowchart of FIG. 15, an operator is allowed toinput a user ID and a password in the contractor client 6 which is thesecondary user terminal (step Ss1).

The input user ID and password are transmitted to the data managementserver 5 (step Ss2). The data management server 5 receives the user IDand the password (step St1), and executes authentication (collation)processing for the user ID and the password (step St2). It is determinedwhether or not collation is successful (step St3), and in the case wherecollation is not successful, a corresponding error message is created(step St4).

In the case where collation is successful, a permitted search conditionkey for the secondary user is extracted by referring to the secondarydata user access right management database 5 h based on the client IDcorresponding to the user ID (step St5).

Additionally, in the same manner, the secondary data user access rightmanagement database 5 h is searched with the client ID to extract a dataitem (kind) accessible by the secondary user (step St6).

The extracted search condition key and data item are set in a data table(step St7).

The above-described error message or data table is transmitted to thecontractor client 6 (step St8).

The contractor client 6 receives the error message or the data table(step Ss3).

It is determined whether or not the error message is received (stepSs4), and in the case of error, the error message is displayed (stepSs5). In the case where there is no error, the permitted searchcondition key (search item) for the display of the contractor client 6and the accessible data item are displayed (step Ss6).

For example, as illustrated in FIGS. 24 and 25, a display screen 85corresponding to search level 1 or a display screen 86 corresponding tosearch level 2 in Table 11 are displayed on the display of thecontractor client 6 as the permitted search items (search conditionitems). On the display screen 85 and display screen 86, by selecting asearch item to which a search condition is input, the display isswitched over to an image for inputting the condition in the selectedsearch item, and the user can input the condition.

In this case, the search item that is not permitted in search level 1but permitted in search level 2 is displayed only on the display screen86 of search level 2 and is not displayed on the display screen ofsearch level 1; therefore, in spite of a contract of search level 1, anerror is not issued when the condition is input in the search item notpermitted in search level 1 but permitted in search level 2, and theoperator's operation is facilitated, while the input processing for thesearch condition can be simplified.

In the same manner, in the case of specifying an item indicating a datablock to which the data searched and output under the above-describedsearch condition belongs, a display screen 87 corresponding to accesslevel 1, a display screen corresponding to access level 2 (notillustrated), or a display screen 88 corresponding to access level 3 inTable 11 is displayed as illustrated in FIGS. 26 and 27. That is, thespecified screen of a data output item in accordance with the user'saccess level is displayed.

In this case also, when there is no item of a data block classified intothe access level, the data item is not displayed and the data itemcannot be selected. When the data item is selected on the displayscreens 87 and 88 of the access levels, only the data of the data itemselected on the display screens 87 and 88 from among searchable(extractable) data is to be output by inputting the search condition inthe above-described search item.

In this case also, an error is not issued by mistaking the data item tobe output, and the operator's operation is facilitated, while the inputprocessing for the search condition can be simplified.

The output request data in the range of the search condition key and theabove-described data item is input based on the screen display (stepSs7), and the input data is transmitted to the data management server 5(step Ss8). The data management server receives the data (step St9). Inthe data management server 5, the data of the data item that matches thesearch condition and is permitted to be accessed is acquired from eachof the databases based on the search condition key and the data itempermitted to be accessed (step St10).

The acquired data is transmitted to the contractor client 6 (step St11).In the contractor client 6, the above-described data (step Ss9) isreceived, and the received data is displayed on the display of thecontractor client 6 or output and stored as a file (step Ss10).

In this case also, the data of the data item permitted by the accessright in the range of the set search condition key can be acquired inthe same manner as the above-described case, and also an error can bereduced because the available search condition key and the data itempermitted to be accessed are displayed.

Next, user cosmetic registration processing will be described withreference to a flowchart in FIG. 16. In this processing, the userregisters using cosmetics in the using cosmetic history database 5 d byusing the registered cosmetic database 5 p in which the cosmetic data isregistered.

The user starts the dedicated application 5 j of the smartphone 3 andalso selects cosmetic registration from the menu.

Thus, a cosmetic registration screen 71 illustrated in FIG. 19 isdisplayed on the smartphone 3. On the cosmetic registration screen 71, abutton switch of starting a bar code scanner program using the digitalcamera of the smartphone 3 is displayed and also an input screen for thekey word search is displayed (step A1). Based on the user operation, itis determined whether to execute bar code input by using the bar codescanner or key word search (including search per item) (step A2).

In the case where the bar code scanner is started by the user, thedigital camera of the smartphone starts and becomes ready to photographthe bar code; processing of recognizing the bar code is executed byimage recognition; and when the user adjusts a photographing range ofthe digital camera to focus the bar code, a bar code image is recognizedand the bar code is photographed (step A3).

A pattern of the photographed bar code is converted to a characterstring (numerical string) by the image recognition processing. Thenumerical string is a JAN code, and the JAN code is to be extracted fromthe bar code (step A4). Here, the maker, product, etc. indicated by theJAN code may be specified based on the JAN code, but it is preferablethat analysis on the JAN code be executed on the management terminalside of the data management server. In this case, a search command ofinstructing search in the registered cosmetic database 5 p by using theJAN code or the key word is transmitted to the data management server 5(management terminal thereof) (step A6).

Note that, in the case of keyword search, a corresponding key word foreach of the predetermined items may be input as illustrated in thecosmetic registration screen 71, and also a key word may be inputregardless of the items. Note that, on the occasion of inputting thekeyword for each of the items, search can be executed by inputting a keyword only in an item for which the key word is known.

The management terminal receives the JAN code or the key word, and thesearch command from the smartphone 3 (step B1).

The management terminal searches the registered cosmetic database 5 p ofthe data management server 5 for the cosmetic, using the bar code or thekey word (step B2). The management terminal transmits, to the smartphone3, a search result obtained by execution of the search (step B3). Thesearch result includes a case where not only one cosmetic but also aplurality of cosmetics are retrieved and a case where no cosmetic can beretrieved.

The transmitted search result is received by the smartphone 3 (step A7).

In this case, it is determined whether or not there is more than zeroinformation indicating the cosmetic as the search result, that is,whether there is one or more searched cosmetic, or whether no cosmeticcan be retrieved as a non-registration determining unit (step A8).

In the case where there is a searched cosmetic, the information of thesearched cosmetic is displayed. For example, as illustrated in a screendisplay 72 of FIG. 19 in the case where the cosmetic is retrieved, animage (photo) showing appearance of the cosmetic, a product name, arelease date, ingredients, etc. are displayed. However, in the casewhere a plurality of cosmetics is retrieved, the plurality of cosmeticsis displayed. This display screen is called a selection display screen(step A9). On this screen, the user can select because, even when theretrieved cosmetic is only one, there is a case in which the retrievedcosmetic is different from the cosmetic that the user intends toregister.

In the smartphone 3, it is determined whether the user has selected theone cosmetic on the selection display screen or selected the fact thatthere is no cosmetic which the user intends to register (step A10).

In the case where the user has selected the one cosmetic, the JAN code(product code) of the cosmetic is determined (step A11). Note that theJAN code is acquired on the occasion of searching the registeredcosmetic database 5 p.

In step A8, in the case where there is no searched cosmetic, thesmartphone 3 outputs a message indicating that the cosmetic that theuser intends to register is not registered in the registered cosmeticdatabase 5 p (step A12).

Next, a user registration screen 73 for registration by the user of thenon-registered cosmetic that cannot be retrieved is displayed on thesmartphone 3 as a non-registered cosmetic specific information inputtingunit (step A13). In step A10, in the case where there is no productintended to be registered in the search result, the processing alsoproceeds to step A13, and the user registration screen 73 is displayed.

On the user registration screen 73, the items that the user can registerare the same as the above-described user input permitted item in theregistered cosmetic database 5 p, for example, a category, a maker name,a brand name, a JAN code, volume, and so on. The data is input by theuser in the input items of the cosmetic (step A14),

When a registration button is touched, the input data in the respectiveitems and a new cosmetic registration command of instructing the dataregistration of the non-registered cosmetic are transmitted to themanagement terminal (step A15). Note that, on the occasion of data inputin the respective items by the user, preferably the JAN code is requiredto be input. Note that, for inputting the JAN code, the above-describedbar code scanner function may be used.

In the management terminal, the data of the item input by the user andthe new cosmetic registration command are received (step B4).

The received data is registered in the registered cosmetic database 5 pof the data management server 5 by the management terminal (step B5).

On this occasion, the cosmetic maker management database 5 q is searchedbased on the registered cosmetic maker or JAN code as described above,and an e-mail encouraging input of the cosmetic information in theregistered cosmetic database is transmitted to a person in charge of themaker based on an e-mail address of the maker and a name of the personin charge, etc. (step B6).

The message or the like on the above-described occasion is apreliminarily prepared message added with the maker name, the name ofthe person in charge, the JAN code of the cosmetic intended to beregistered, and so on. Additionally, the e-mail message includes themaker ID and maker password for permitting access to the registeredcosmetic database 5 p. Thus, the person in charge of the maker canaccess the registered cosmetic database 5 p, and access (writing,deleting, etc.) to the data of cosmetics other than the cosmetics of themaker corresponding to the maker ID is inhibited.

In the management terminal, on the occasion where the new registrationprocessing for the cosmetic to the registered cosmetic database 5 p endsand at least the data of the user input permitted item is registered inthe registered cosmetic database 5 p, the JAN code of the newlyregistered cosmetic is transmitted to the smartphone 3. In thesmartphone 3 having received the JAN code of the newly registeredcosmetic, a screen 74 displaying completion of the registration isdisplayed.

In the smartphone 3, in the case where the cosmetic that the userintends to register is searched and in the case where theabove-described new registration is executed, a writing command ofinstructing to write the cosmetic data to be registered in the usingcosmetic history database 5 d, the client ID of the user, the data ofthe cosmetic category, and the JAN code as the product code of thecosmetic are transmitted to the management terminal (step A16).

The management terminal having received the data from the smartphone 3(step B7) writs the received product code in the record of the receivedclient ID in the using cosmetic history database 5 d (step B8) andtransmits, to the smartphone 3, the data indicating that registering thecosmetic in the using cosmetic history database 5 d has ended.

In the smartphone 3, a message indicating end of registration of thecosmetic (purchased cosmetic) which the user uses is displayed (stepA17). On this occasion, a display screen 75 for displaying the cosmeticregistered in the using cosmetic history database 5 d can be displayedon the smartphone.

In the above-described registration method by the user of the cosmetic(cosmetic purchased by the user) which the user uses, in the case wherethe cosmetic is not registered on the occasion where the user intends toregister the purchased cosmetic with reference to the registeredcosmetic database, the user can register the data of the non-registeredproduct, and also in the case where the user finds a non-registeredcosmetic, the record of the cosmetic to be newly registered in theregistered cosmetic database 5 p can be completed by contacting theperson in charge of the cosmetic maker (distributor firm) to inform ofthe fact and to further supplement the data of the cosmetic.

Note that, when the person in charge of the cosmetic maker who sends thee-mail is, for example, a person in charge of public relations, theperson in charge considers that registering data of the own companyproducts in the database which is likely to catch many people'sattention is a part of the public relations, and is more likely toregister the data of the own company products in the registered cosmeticdatabase 5 p.

That is, when the user finds a cosmetic that is not registered in theregistered cosmetic database 5 p on the occasion of registering acosmetic of the user, the user can input the JAN code, maker name, orproduct name (brand name) of the cosmetic that is not registered. Thus,on the data management server 5 side, the fact of existence of thecosmetic that is not registered can be found out and it becomes possibleto request the maker to register the data of the cosmetic that is notregistered. Additionally, the cosmetic data is more likely to becorrectly input by the person in charge of the maker who may know thecosmetic data, and the operator or the like on the data managementserver 5 side does not need to input the cosmetic data to be newlyregistered.

Therefore, the data of non-registered cosmetics such as a new product isto be sequentially registered in the registered cosmetic database 5 peven though the operator and administrator of the data management server5 almost do not execute maintenance work for updating the data of theregistered cosmetic database 5 p, and thus the management cost can bereduced.

Next, user skin history display processing will be described withreference to a flowchart in FIG. 17. In the user skin history displayprocessing, a graph is created in chronological order for each item ofthe detailed analysis results (simple analysis results may be also used)as scores registered in the detailed analysis result database 5 e, andalso the data (product name, etc.) of the used cosmetic is displayedusing the care chart database 5 o in the same chronological order. Atime axis of the graph and a time axis of the using cosmetic are madethe same such that a relation between changes in the skin condition andthe using cosmetic can be easily seen and grasped.

Here, a method of inputting a using cosmetic in the care chart database5 o will be described with reference to FIG. 20 before describing theuser skin history display processing. A using cosmetic input screen 76is displayed on the smartphone 3 by selecting the care chart from themenu of the dedicated application 5 j on the smartphone 3 and selectinginput care from the menu screen of the care chart. On a using cosmeticinput screen, a product name and a checkbox of the cosmetic without theuse finish date input are displayed among the cosmetics registered inthe using cosmetic history database 5 d for each cosmetic category, suchas a facial wash, a makeup remover, and lotion.

The user can input the using cosmetic by touching a registration buttonafter touching the checkbox corresponding to the used cosmetic. Notethat the using cosmetic can be input by dividing a daily time zone intomorning and night, and inputting the cosmetic used in the morning andthe cosmetic used in the night separately even on the same date.

Additionally, on a calendar screen 77 illustrated in FIG. 20, as ascheduler function 78, by touching a date in the past on the calendarthe cosmetic used on that day can be displayed with morning and nightdivided. Note that preferably the used cosmetic is input in the case ofhaving measured the skin condition. Accordingly, in the case ofexecuting diagnostic measurement of skin, the using cosmetic inputscreen 76 may be displayed or a photographing program for the camera forskin may be started when the data is input on the input screen 76,before and after the analysis.

Alternatively, the cosmetics registered as the using cosmetics in ausing cosmetic registration database may be automatically registered inthe care chart database 5 o, deeming that the user constantly uses thesecosmetics. Additionally, it is also possible to register a set(combination) of cosmetics that the user uses in the storage inside thesmartphone and to have the set of cosmetics so as to be automaticallyregistered in the care chart database 5 o every day. In the case wherethe cosmetic to be used in the morning is different from the cosmetic tobe used in the night, a morning set and a night set may be stored insidethe smartphone so as to be automatically registered in the care chartdatabase 5 o every day. In the above-described cases, the contents ofthe care chart database 5 o may be revised by touching a relevant datein the calendar of the scheduler function only in the case where care isnot executed or in the case where a cosmetic different from the usualset is used.

The user skin history display processing is executed by using the carechart database 5 o in which the using cosmetics are thus registered, thesimple analysis results on skin images in the skin history database orthe detailed analysis result database 5 e.

In the user skin history display processing, in the smartphone 3, theuser starts the dedicated application 5 j and selects the skin historydisplay from the menu, and thus, the smartphone 3 transmits, to themanagement terminal of the data management server 5 from the skinhistory database 5 b or the detailed analysis result database 5 e, thescores in past three months corresponding to the client ID of the useras the analysis results on texture, spots, etc., the date registered inthe care chart database 5 o, and a transfer request command thatrequests transfer of the using cosmetic data in the morning and nightduring the past three months together with the client ID (step C1), forexample.

Note that the requested data period is not limited to the past threemonths, but may be, for example, the past half year, the past one year,etc. Additionally, the requested data period may be settable by the useras described below. Additionally, the detailed analysis result may beretrieved from the detailed analysis result database 5 e.

In the management terminal having received the transfer request command(step D1), the scores as the detailed analysis results on the texture,spots, etc. during the specified period (three months) are copied basedon the client ID from the skin history database 5 b to a data table,correlated to the chronological order (step D2).

Next, in the management terminal, the data (JAN code) of the cosmeticused during the specified period is copied to the data table, correlatedto the chronological order, based on the client ID from the care chartdatabase 5 o (step D3).

Next, the registered cosmetic database 5 p is searched based on the JANcode of the cosmetic copied to the data table as described above, andthe data such as the maker name, brand name, and appearance photographof the cosmetic correlated to the JAN code is copied to the data table,correlated to each cosmetic (JAN codes) (step D4).

The data table to which the data extracted from the respective databasesis copied as described above is transmitted to the smartphone 3 (stepD5).

In the data smartphone 3 having received the data table (step C2), asillustrated in a skin history display screen 79 in FIG. 21, a graph(line graph) having a vertical axis indicating the scores of thedetailed analysis result and a horizontal axis indicating the date (timeaxis) is displayed for each of the items such as texture and spots (stepC3). Additionally, the name of the cosmetic used during thecorresponding period is displayed for each category of the cosmeticname, and also a use period is displayed for each cosmetic (for eachcosmetic category) in conformity with the horizontal axis (dates) of thegraph of the detailed analysis result (step C4). In the display of thegraph of the detailed analysis result as the analysis result data, theanalysis result data is arranged along the chronological order, and thedisplay screens 79 and 80 become the chronological display of theanalysis result data.

For example, a band for each cosmetic category is displayed in parallelto the horizontal axis corresponding to the horizontal axis of thegraph, and the use period and a non-use period are indicated indifferent colors. Note that, in the case where a different cosmetic inthe same cosmetic category is used during the above-described period,the color of the period indicated in the band can be varied for eachcosmetic.

Additionally, by touching a morning button and a night button displayedat a lower portion of the skin history display screen 79, the detailedanalysis result and the using cosmetic in the morning and the detailedanalysis result and the using cosmetic in the night can be displayed ina switchable manner. Additionally, a graph for the scores of theanalysis results may by created and displayed by using an average of theanalysis results in the morning and night may be used as the analysisresult on that day.

Additionally, when the color portion of the band indicating the useperiod displayed for each cosmetic category is touched on the skinhistory display screen 79, the product name, price, release date,ingredients, etc. of the cosmetic used during that period is popupdisplayed as shown in a skin history display screen 80. Thus, since theanalysis result is displayed in the graph as the analysis result dataand the use period of the cosmetic is displayed in the band while theproduct name and the like indicating the cosmetic are popup displayed,the analysis result data and the cosmetic data indicating the cosmeticare to be displayed in parallel.

Thus, as the cosmetic data, the period during which each cosmetic isused and the detailed analysis result during that period can be seen byassociating with dates. Thus, whether the skin condition is improved,not changed, or deteriorated on the occasion of using the cosmetic canbeen seen. Additionally, in the case of having used a cosmetic called A,for example, it can be determined that the score in the analysis resulthas been relatively high, or it can be confirmed which cosmetic has beenused during the period in which the analysis result is relatively high.

On the skin history display screen 79 in FIG. 21, a display period ofthe skin history can be changed by pinch-in and pinch-out operation ofshortening and elongating a distance between two fingers while touchingthe screen with the two fingers.

In this case, for example, data for one year which is longer than adefault display period may be transmitted from the management terminalof the data management server 5 instead of transmitting the data of, forexample, the three-month default display period from the data managementserver 5 side; on the occasion of displaying, the data for three monthsmay be used, and in the case where there is a request for changing thedisplay period as described above, the skin history from 4th month to12th month may be made displayable by using the data for one yearalready transmitted, instead of requesting again the data managementserver 5 side to transfer the data. In this case, a relatively longwaiting time can be prevented from occurring due to communication orprocessing between the smartphone 3 and the management terminal of thedata management server 5 by starting the display processing afterreceiving the data of the three-month default display period andreceiving the data from 4th month to 12th month in parallel. Note thatthe transfer data at this time with the above-described measurementcondition flag added thereto is excluded. For the excluded data,interpolation processing is executed based on the data preceding andfollowing data of the excluded data, so that a graph having a smoothshape can be obtained.

Note that in addition to the above-described method of displaying theanalysis result within a certain period, the method of displaying theskin history is capable of executing comparative display processing fora today's analysis result and a analysis result of any date in the past.

As illustrated in FIG. 22, a comparison display screen 81 is displayed,and the latest measurement data such as today's data (yesterday's datais also possible) and the specific data in the past can be comparativelydisplayed for comparison. The comparable data is, for example, the skinimage for texture and spots by the camera for skin, the score of thedetailed analysis result (or simple analysis result), and the advice atthe time of the detailed analysis. Note that the today's data and thedata of the date in the past are displayed for morning and night becausethe data is input in the morning and night as described above.

In the above-described display processing, the smartphone 3 is torequest the management terminal to transfer the above-described data tobe displayed of today or yesterday (basically, the latest date when thedata is input) from the skin history database 5 b or the detailedanalysis result database, and transfer the above-described data to bedisplayed of the date in the past input by the user in the smartphone 3and registered in the skin history database 5 b or the detailed analysisresult database.

On the other hand, the management terminal extracts data of thecorresponding two dates from the skin history database 5 b of the datamanagement server 5 and outputs the extracted data to the smartphone 3.Thus, the comparison display screen 81 (comparative display) illustratedin FIG. 22 can be displayed on the smartphone 3 as a simultaneouscomparison unit.

According to this display, it becomes possible to easily compare thepresent skin condition with the skin condition of, for example, a monthago, half a year ago, or one year ago, and the user can easily determinewhether or not the skin condition is improved.

Next, effect confirming processing for a specific cosmetic will bedescribed with reference to a flowchart in FIG. 18.

This processing is processing of displaying data of a detailed analysisresult (simple analysis result) on the skin condition during apredetermined period, such as first three months of a use period of acosmetic in the skin history database 5 b of a different user having thesame skin type, among other users who use the cosmetic that a user usesor may use.

In the effect confirming processing for the specific cosmetic, the userstarts the dedicated application 5 j of the smartphone 3 and selectseffect confirmation of the cosmetic from the menu. Thus, the smartphone3 executes processing of displaying a cosmetic selecting screen 83(including a target person narrow-down screen described later)illustrated in FIG. 23 (step E1). On the cosmetic selecting screen 83,the screen switches to the cosmetic selecting screen (list display) (notillustrated) by pushing “>” in an input box for each cosmetic categoryso as to encourage the user to select a cosmetic. To select thecosmetic, input may be executed using the cosmetic input screendescribed in the flowchart in FIG. 13.

The user specifies the cosmetic of at least one category on the cosmeticselecting screen 83, using the selecting screen or the like, and thesmartphone 3 stores (step E2). Note that, as illustrated in the cosmeticselecting screen 83, the cosmetic product name (brand name) or the likecan be input for each category, and a plurality of cosmetics in variouscategories can be input.

Next, the target person narrow-down screen is displayed as a part of theabove-described cosmetic selecting screen (step E3). Here, conditions tonarrow down the target person are age (generation) and a place ofresidence. Note that the processing continues even though no conditionto narrow down the target person is input. On the target personnarrow-down screen, in principle, the target person is required to havethe same skin type as the user although such a requirement is notincluded in the input items, and narrowing down is to be executed by theskin type.

The conditions to narrow down the target person input by the user arestored in the smartphone 3 (step E4).

The smartphone 3 transmits, to the management terminal, theabove-described input and stored specific data (for example, a makername and a brand name) of the cosmetic, the conditions to narrow downthe target person, and the current skin type of the user (step E5).

Note that in the transmission between the smartphone 3 and themanagement terminal, an ID that can specify the user (smartphone 3),such as the client ID or the like, is basically used for authentication,and the skin type may be obtained from the detailed analysis resultdatabase 5 e in which the skin types are registered or the skin historydatabase 5 b including the detailed analysis result data on the datamanagement server 5 side, by using the client ID of the userauthenticated as described above even without transmitting the skintype.

Additionally, on the cosmetic selecting screen (target personnarrow-down screen) 83 illustrated in FIG. 23, the items to be displayedamong the items of the detailed analysis result can be selected by anON/OFF button, but as for the data of the analysis result to bedisplayed as a graph, all of the items are transmitted from themanagement terminal such that the items to be displayed can be selectedon the smartphone 3 side.

The data transmitted from the smartphone 3 is received by the managementterminal as a part of the data management server 5 (step F1). In themanagement terminal as a user extracting unit, a client ID that is usingor has used the cosmetic input by the user is retrieved first by theusing cosmetic history database 5 d. Note that, in the case where aplurality of cosmetics is input, the client IDs (group of targetpersons) are narrowed down by AND search. Additionally, the clientpersonal information management database 5 a is searched by using theclient ID, and the generation and place of residence input as thenarrow-down conditions, and the group of target persons is furthernarrowed down (step F2).

A use period from the use start date to the use finish date (presenttime in the case where the use finish date is not registered) of thecosmetic input by the user in the using cosmetic history database 5 d isobtained. Additionally, in the case where the user continuouslypurchases and uses the cosmetic, such a continuous period from the usestart date to the use finish date is obtained as the use period. Notethat the use period may also be obtained from the using cosmetic of thenarrowed-down target persons for each date in the care chart database 5o.

In this case, when there is a date having non-registered data, a periodincluding the date having non-registered data is adopted as the useperiod if the same cosmetic is used before and after such a date. Adisplay period of the analysis result is determined from the use periodof the target person (step F3). On this occasion, for example, anaverage use period of the target persons may be adopted, or the useperiod of a predetermined proportion of the target persons, such as 80%,may be adopted.

Note that the default display period is set to the display periodobtained as described, but the obtained display period can be changed bypinch-in or pinch-out operation, for example.

Next, the management terminal as a rank extracting unit extracts thescore (rank, deviation value) of the detailed analysis result during theabove-described set display period from the skin history database 5 b.On this occasion, the client IDs of the above-described target personsare narrowed down, and also the data of the simple analysis result orthe detailed analysis result is read out from the skin history databasefrom the use start date to the use finish date in the using cosmetichistory database 5 d. A data table in which the data read out is listedin conformity with the chronological order (time axis by a date unit)having the data of the use start date at the top is created (step F4).Note that the data at this time having the above-described measurementcondition flag added thereto is not registered in the table.

Next, an average of, for example, a score of the analysis result in themorning and a score of the analysis result in the night is obtained foreach date and for each item in the above-described data table. Next, anaverage of the scores of all of the target persons for each number ofdays from the use start date is obtained for each item. A data table iscreated using the obtained average scores arranged along the time axiscorresponding to the number of days from the use start date.

In this data table, the averages of the respective scores of all of thenarrowed-down target persons are arranged in the chronological order. Inthis data table, the data to be displayed in a graph on the smartphone 3is registered. The data table is transmitted to the smartphone 3 by themanagement terminal as a rank transmitting unit (step f5).

The smartphone 3 receives the data table for the graph (step E6).

Using the received data table, the graph having the horizontal axis asthe time axis and the vertical axis as the average score is displayed ina line graph as shown in a graph display screen 84 of FIG. 24 in whichthe average scores of all of the narrowed-down target persons arearranged along the time axis for each item.

Additionally, it has been described that an average of the score in themorning and the score in the night on the same date is obtained;however, display of a graph of the scores only in the morning anddisplay of a graph of the scores only in the night may be madedisplayable in a switchable manner besides the display of the graph ofthe average of the morning and night. Additionally, in the case wherethe scores of the analysis result only for the morning or only for thenight are registered by the target persons, either the score in themorning or the score in the night is adopted as the score of the dayinstead of the average score of the morning and night. Additionally, inthe case where there is a date without registered score, the score maybe interpolated with the scores of preceding or following dates.

Note that it has been described that the average value of all of thenarrowed-down target persons is adopted, but statistical processing orthe like other than averaging may be applied to the scores of the targetpersons as well.

Additionally, for example, the number (proportion) of the target personshaving a score change with time passage within a predetermined range,the number (proportion) of the target persons having the score changewith time passage higher than the predetermined range, and the number(proportion) of the target persons having the score change with timepassage lower then predetermined range may be displayed.

According to the above-described effect confirming processing for thespecific cosmetic, the user can find out how the skin analysis resultchanges when the target person of the same skin type uses the specificcosmetic. In the case where the specific cosmetic is the currently usingcosmetic, the user can determine whether to continue to use the cosmeticor change to other cosmetic based on this processing. Additionally, inthe case where the specific cosmetic is a cosmetic that is not used yetand is considered for purchasing, the user can use this processing as areference.

Next, a description will be given for hiding processing for the user todelete the measurement data and the analysis result data from display ofthe analysis result or the like on the smartphone 3.

The case where the user intends to delete the analysis result data is,for example, the case where when the analysis result data is lower thana previous analysis data, the cause thereof seems to be situationalproblems such as getting too much sun, particularly, being tired, etc.,and measurement problems such as an operation mistake in the skincondition measuring device 1 or difference in measurement conditions.

As above, as the processing for a user to delete the analysis resultdata and the measurement data, a button (key) 92 a for instructingdeletion of the simple analysis result from the skin history database 5b is displayed on a display screen 90 a on which the simple analysisresult (may be the detailed analysis result) is displayed as theanalysis result data, as illustrated in FIG. 28. Additionally, a displayarea 91 a of the display screen is an area in which an acquisition timeof the analysis result is displayed. In the case where the acquisitiontime is today, the result is displayed as a today's result, and in thecase where the acquisition time is in the past, a date in the past isdisplayed in a display area 91 b of a display screen 90 b as illustratedin FIG. 29. This past result is output when the user specifies aspecific date from the calendar screen in FIG. 21.

In the case where the user finds the problems as described above in theanalysis result, the hiding processing is started by touching theabove-described button 92 a. By touching the button 92 a, a signalinstructing start of the hiding processing is transmitted from thesmartphone 3 to the data management server 5. Here, the diagramillustrated in FIG. 28 is the today's analysis result (analysis resultdata) obtained from the skin image photographed by the camera for skinas the skin condition measuring device 1, and the hiding processing isstarted such that the simple analysis result on today's skin imageobtained from the skin image and the skin image cannot be viewed by thesmartphone 3.

The signal transmitted from the smartphone 3 to the data managementserver 5 instructs deletion of the simple analysis result on the skinimage obtained today from the display of the smartphone 3. Note that asimple analysis result by the evaporimeter and a simple analysis resultby the melanin meter are registered in the skin history database 5 b asthe simple analysis results, in addition to the simple analysis resulton the skin image.

In the skin history database 5 b illustrated in Table 17, a skin imagedeletion flag can be set correlated to the simple analysis result on theskin image, an evaporimeter data deletion flag can be set correlated tothe simple analysis result by the evaporimeter, and a melanin meter datadeletion flag can be set correlated to the simple analysis result by themelanin meter. Additionally, in the hiding processing for the simpleanalysis result by the evaporimeter and the simple analysis result bythe melanin meter, abnormal value processing is started for the simpleanalysis result by the evaporimeter and the simple analysis result bythe melanin meter by touching the above-described “delete from history”buttons 92 a and 92 b displayed on the respective analysis resultdisplay screens.

TABLE 17

According to the hiding processing in the data management server 5, theskin image deletion flag is set for, for example, the simple analysisresult on a today's skin image based on the signal transmitted from thesmartphone 3 by touching the above-described buttons 92 a and 93 b. Inthe same manner, the evaporimeter data deletion flag and the melaninmeter data deletion flag are respectively set in the case of touchingthe buttons 92 a and 92 b displayed on the display screens of the simpleanalysis result by the evaporimeter and the simple analysis result bythe melanin meter.

Additionally, setting of the respective flags can be set not only forthe analysis result of the day but also for the past analysis result,and as illustrated in FIG. 29, in the case where a request fordisplaying the past analysis result is transmitted to the datamanagement server 5 from the smartphone 3 and the past analysis resultis displayed on the smartphone 3, the “delete from history” button 92 bsame as the case of the display of the today's analysis result isdisplayed and by touching this button 92 b, a signal instructing thehiding processing of inhibiting display on the smartphone 3 of any ofthe simple analysis result on the skin image, the simple analysis resultby the evaporimeter, and the simple analysis result by the melanin meteron the date in the past is transmitted from the smartphone 3 to the datamanagement server 5.

Thus, in the data management server 5, the above-described flag is setfor the specified analysis result on the specified date by the signalfrom the smartphone 3.

Once these flags are set, the data management server 5 determineswhether or not there is a analysis result (analysis result data) setwith the flags among the analysis results to be output to the smartphone3 in the case where a request for displaying the respective analysisresults is received from the smartphone 3 side, and the processing isexecuted so as not to transmit the analysis result set with the flags tothe smartphone 3. In this case, a measurement result corresponding tothe analysis result not to be displayed may also be prevented fromdisplay.

Thus, the analysis result instructed to be deleted from the history asdescribed above enters a state of not being displayed on the smartphone3.

In this case, even when deletion of data from the history is instructedfrom the smartphone 3. Actually, deletion from the skin history database5 b is not executed, and the data is used in the statistical processingfor the analysis result and also can be output to the contractor client6 in the case where search is made by the contractor client 6.

Next, the abnormal value processing of processing an abnormal value inthe data management server 5 will be described.

The abnormal value processing is executed, for example, in the datamanagement server 5 regardless the user's operation. When a analysisresult as the analysis result data is acquired, it is determined whetheror not a value of the analysis result (simple analysis result on theskin image, simple analysis result by the evaporimeter and simpleanalysis result by the melanin meter) is an abnormal value, and in thecase where the value is determined as an abnormal value, the analysisresult data as the analysis result, and the measurement data that hasbeen analyzed on the occasion of acquiring the data are deleted from theskin history database 5 b. Note that the abnormal value is likely toadversely affect a statistical processing result in the case of beingused in the statistical processing or the like.

In a determining method for the abnormal value, for example, a valueexceeding a preset allowable range a on a positive side and a negativeside of a value of a value of the previous analysis result is adopted asthe abnormal value. Additionally, as the determining method for theabnormal value, a value exceeding the allowable range a on the positiveside and the negative side of a value estimated by interpolation fromthe values of a plurality of the past analysis results may be used asthe abnormal value.

In the case where a value is determined as the abnormal value in theabnormal determination, the value of the analysis result determined asthe abnormal value is not stored in the skin history database becausethe value of the analysis result is determined as the abnormal value,and the user is informed of this fact via the smartphone 3. According tothis abnormal value processing, accuracy of the data in the analysisresult can be improved.

Next, a description will be given for a case of using the digital cameraof the smartphone 3 having a conversion lens 1 a (illustrated in FIGS.30 and 31) attached thereto for photographing the skin, such asphotographing the above-described image for texture analysis, image forspots analysis, and skin image.

In this case, since resolution (number of pixels) of the digital camerais varied depending on the smartphone models and provides differentimage quality, the dedicated application 5 j transmits image qualitydata for each of the models of smartphones 3 to the skin historydatabase 5 b. Here, the image quality data is, for example, resolution.The resolution may be, for example, the number of effective pixels of animaging device or the number of pixels of the photographed image data.

Additionally, the resolution may be a size and the number of pixels ofthe imaging device of the digital camera. At the time of analysis andanalysis, analysis and analysis are executed by converting each image tothe image quality data of predefined items of analysis and analysis. Forexample, in the case where the skin image has low resolution withrespect to the image quality data to be used for the skin analysis, theresolution is increased by super-resolution technology to executeanalysis and analysis, and in contrast, in the case where the skin imagehas high resolution, the pixels are reduced to decrease the resolutionto execute the analysis and analysis.

The above description is a method of registering the image data and theimage quality data thereof in the database such as the skin historydatabase inside the server, but as another method, the image quality maypreliminarily be determined for an image to be registered in the skinhistory database, and when the image is transmitted from the user, theimage may be converted to the image quality defined by an applicationinside the smartphone or a program inside the server to be registered inthe database. In this case, the image quality data may be unnecessary asthe item in the database. In the following, this method will bedescribed.

For example, as illustrated in FIGS. 30 and 31, in the management systemfor skin condition measurement analysis information, the conversion lens1 a for photographing the skin is attached to the digital camera of thesmartphone 3, and the skin image such as the above-described image fortexture analysis, the image for spots analysis, and the skin image isphotographed by using the digital camera provided in the smartphone 3 tosend the image data of each of the photographed images to the datamanagement server 5, and to execute analysis and analysis on the skincondition by using the image data. Alternatively, the skin isphotographed by a camera for skin built inside the smartphone via afixed line like a USB, or radio such as Bluetooth and WiFi, and theimage data of each of the photographed images is sent to the datamanagement server 5, and analysis and analysis on the skin condition isexecuted by using the image data. In the following, the former case willbe mainly described.

On this occasion, the resolution (number of pixels) of the image data isunified to a predetermined resolution for each kind of image (image fortexture analysis, image for spots analysis, etc.) to be registered inthe data management server 5. To unify the resolution of the images, itis necessary to convert the image having different resolution for eachmodel of the smartphone or for each model of the camera forphotographing the skin. The system in FIG. 30 is of a type including animage quality converting unit on the server side, and the system in FIG.31 is of a type including the image quality converting unit inside thesmartphone by adding a function of image quality conversion processingto an application transmitted to each smartphone from the server.

Here, the number of pixels of the digital camera mounted on thesmartphone 3 generally known is, for example, 5M (2560×1920) pixels, 8M(3264×2448) pixels, 13M (4128×3096), or the like. Note that the numberof pixels of the digital camera in the smartphone 3 tends to increase,and the smartphone 3 with a camera mounted thereto and having the numberof pixels larger than 13M pixels is also released.

In the actual skin photographing, a range of the skin to be photographedby using the conversion lens 1 a is defined and, for example, an imagecorresponding to a predetermined range of the skin is cut out from thephotographed image and used for analysis and analysis.

According to the present embodiment, the image is cut out in a squareshape and, for example, in the case of the camera having 5M pixels, therange of 1004×1004 is cut out, in the case of 8M pixels, the range of1265×1265 is cut out, and in the case of 13M pixels, the range of1600×1600 is cut out.

In the case where the image data of the above-described size is cut outby using the same conversion lens 1 a in the camera having a respectivenumber of pixels and used for the analysis and analysis, the image datahaving different resolution but substantially the same size can beobtained.

However, it is preferable to unify the resolution of the skin imagesused for analysis and analysis as described above in order to reducedispersion of the analysis and analysis results and, for example,according to the present embodiment, the pixels of the image dataphotographed and cut out are thinned to decrease the number of pixels,or the number of pixels is increased by interpolating the pixels of theimage data or using the super-resolution, thereby obtaining thepredetermined number of pixels of the cut-out image data.

According to the present embodiment, for example, the resolution of theimage data is unified to 1024×1024 that is the resolution between thecase of 5M pixels and the case of 8M pixels.

In this case, in the case where the camera has the resolution of 5Mpixels, it is necessary to increase the number of pixels byinterpolating the pixels. As for the image interpolating method, variouskinds of image interpolating method such as a nearest-neighbor method, abilinear method, and a bicubic method are used to increase theresolution of the image data.

Additionally, according to the present embodiment, a relatively simpleimage interpolating method can be used because the number of pixels(1004×1004) in the above-described image range in the case of 5M pixelsis approximate to the target unified number of pixels (1024×1024) of theimage data.

In the case where the resolution (number of pixels) required fordiagnosis and analysis using the skin image data is, for example, thelowest resolution such as 5M pixels, among the resolution (number ofpixels) generally used in the camera mounted on the smartphone 3, thenumber of pixels of the image data in the predetermined range to be cutout as described above from the image photographed by the camera havingthe lowest resolution may be adopted as the target unified number ofpixels of the image data.

For example, the number of pixels 1004×1004 of the image in thepredetermined range in the above-described case of 5M pixels may beadopted as the target unified resolution.

According to the present embodiment, the unified resolution is set to1024×1024 because a data mount is required be power of two in the fastFourier transformation that is often used for image processing (power oftwo is advantageous to calculation).

Note that, here, the number of pixels of the image in the predeterminedrange in the case of 5M pixels may be 1024×1024 which is power of two,instead of 1004×1004. In this case, in the case where the conversionlens 1 a is set in the camera of 5M pixels, the range of 1024×1024 isneeded to be photographed.

Depending on algorithm used to reduce or increase the number of pixels,but in general, since the smaller the number of pixels of the image datais, the smaller a required storage volume is because processing isslower in the case of increasing the number of pixels than in the caseof decreasing the number of pixels of the image when an image qualitylevel is similar and because the image data having the unified number ofpixels is stored in the skin history database 5 b, and since for examplein the case where image processing is necessary for diagnosis andanalysis or pretreatment thereof, the processing can be accelerated whenthe number of pixels is small, in the case of unifying the number ofpixels of the image data photographed by the camera of each smartphone3, the number of pixels is preferably small as far as the number is thenumber of pixels necessary for diagnosis and analysis. Therefore, it ispreferable as for the resolution of the camera generally used in thesmartphone 3 to determine the target unified number of pixels on thebasis of the camera of the lowest 5M pixels.

In the case of the camera of 8M pixels and the camera of 13M pixels, theprocessing of downsizing the image by using the thinning method isexecuted because the number of pixels is larger than the target unifiednumber of pixels of the image in the above-described predeterminedrange. In this case, for example, the thinning method such as thenearest neighbor algorithm and the area-average method (pixel-averagemethod, integration) is to be used to decrease the number of pixels.

By executing image upsizing (increasing the number of pixels) and imagedownsizing (decreasing the number of pixels) as described above, variouskinds of diagnosis and analysis on the skin condition become possible byusing the image data having the unified number of pixels even when theresolution of the cameras mounted on the smartphone 3 varies.

The image quality conversion processing, in which the image dataphotographed by setting the conversion lens 1 a in the camera of thesmartphone 3 is converted to the image data having the unified number ofpixels of one kind regardless of the number of pixels of the camera ineach smartphone 3 as described above, may be executed on the datamanagement server 5 side or on the smartphone 3 side.

That is, As with the management system for skin condition measurementanalysis information illustrated in FIG. 30, an image quality convertingunit 5 s which executes the image quality conversion processing fordecreasing or increasing the number of pixels to unify the number ofpixels of the image data photographed by the camera of theabove-described smartphone 3 may be provided on the data managementserver 5 side. That is, the above-described image quality conversionprocessing is to be performed by an image quality conversion programexecuted on the data management server 5 side.

In this case, the image data for diagnosis and analysis on the skincondition photographed by the smartphone 3 and the image quality dataindicating the number of pixels are sent to the data management server,a square shaped range, for example, is cut out from the image data inthe image quality conversion processing by the image quality convertingunit 5 s, and also the number of pixels in the cut-out portion isconverted to 1024×1024 as the predetermined number of pixels, and theimage data having the converted image quality is stored in the skinhistory database 5 b.

Therefore, in the case where both the above-described image quality dataand the image data of the skin before image conversion are stored in theskin history database 5 b, the image data of skin stored in the skinhistory database 5 b becomes different. Note that even in the case ofregistering the image quality data and the image data of the skin beforeimage conversion are in the skin history database 5 b, theabove-described image conversion processing for unifying the number ofpixels of the image data of the skin which may varies depending on thecameras of the smartphone 3 is to be executed at the time of diagnosisand analysis on the image data of the skin, and thus the data managementserver 5 includes the image quality converting unit 5 s as illustratedin FIG. 30.

Additionally, as illustrated in FIG. 31, the above-described imagequality conversion processing may be executed on the smartphone 3 side,and an image quality converting unit 3 f of executing theabove-described image quality conversion processing may be provided onthe smartphone 3 side. The function as the image quality converting unit3 f is executable by a program that executes the above-described imagequality conversion processing as a part of the above-described dedicatedapplication 5 j. The image quality conversion processing is executed onthe smartphone 3 side, and the image data that is cut out in the squareshape as described above and also converted to have the unified numberof images is sent to the data management server 5 and registered in theskin history database 5 b, and is also to be used for analysis anddiagnosis on the skin condition.

The number of pixels of the skin image data, which is likely to varydepending on the camera of the smartphone 3, is unified, and thus thenumber of pixels of the image data used in the processing such asdiagnosis and analysis becomes the same, and the above-describedprocessing can be smoothly executed and also influence of the differenceof the number of pixels of the image data onto the results of thediagnosis and analysis can be prevented. For example, in the case ofphotographing the same subject with a different number of pixels, theresults of the diagnosis and analysis are likely to become different dueto the difference in the number of pixels of the image data of thephotographed skin; however, by unifying the number of pixels of theimage data used for diagnosis and analysis, it is possible to avoidobtaining different analysis result.

Additionally, by unifying or approximating the unified number of pixelsof the image data to the lower resolution among the general resolutionof the camera of the smartphone 3, it becomes unnecessary to handle anyimage data having the resolution uselessly higher than the resolution ofthe image data necessary for the diagnosis and analysis processing, andthe storage volume of the skin history database 5 b can be reduced,while the load on the data management server 5 by the image processingor the like can be reduced.

In other words, in the case of photographing the skin by using thecamera of the smartphone 3 and executing diagnosis and analysis on theskin condition by using the image data of the photographed skin,diagnosis and analysis on the skin image data can be executed withoutproblem even when the resolution of the camera varies depending on thesmartphones 3.

Additionally, when the cameras for skin having the same standard areused in the case where the skin condition measuring device 1 as thecamera for skin dedicated for photographing the skin is connectedthrough the communication unit such as the USB, the image data sent tothe data management server 5 from the camera for skin via the smartphone3 has the same number of pixels (resolution), and the above-describedimage quality conversion processing is not necessary.

However, in the case where the cameras for skin have a plurality ofstandards, that is, in the case where a plurality of kinds of thecameras for skin having the different resolution can be used, theabove-described image conversion processing may be executed such thatthe number of pixels becomes the same among the image data to be inputin the same manner as the case where the above-described camera of thesmartphone 3 is used. In this case also, the image quality convertingunit 5 s may be provided in the data management server 5, and the imagequality converting unit 3 f may be provided in the smartphone 3.

Note that, in the communication via the Internet (network) 4, it ispreferable that the data be encrypted. Additionally, as for data inputfrom the client, for example, the server side may have a function as aweb server capable of releasing a website on the Internet 4 and theclient may have a function as a web browser capable of displaying thewebsite so as to enable data input on the web page of the website. Inthis case, preferably SSL encryption or TLS encryption can be used asencryption at the time of data input.

REFERENCE SINGS LIST

-   1 Skin condition measuring device (Skin condition measuring unit)-   3 Smartphone (mobile terminal, cosmetic specific information    inputting unit, history display unit, non-registered cosmetic    specific information inputting unit, temporary registration unit,    simultaneous comparison unit)-   4 Internet (Network)-   5 Data management server (skin condition analyzing unit, history    outputting unit, non-registration determining unit, communication    assisting unit, user extracting unit, rank extracting unit, rank    transmitting unit, registration permitting unit)-   5 b Skin history database (analysis result storage unit)-   5 d Using cosmetic history database (using cosmetic specific    information storage unit)-   5 e Detailed analysis result database (analysis result storage unit)-   5 o Care chart database (using cosmetic specific information storage    unit)-   5 p Registered cosmetic database (registered cosmetic storage unit)-   5 q Cosmetic maker management database (cosmetic maker contact    information storage unit)-   6 Contractor client-   51 User data database-   52 Measurement data database-   53 Data analysis database-   61 Cosmetic company A server (skin condition analyzing unit),    Cosmetic company B server (skin condition analyzing unit)

1. A management system for skin condition measurement analysisinformation, comprising: a skin condition measuring device configured tomeasure skin condition; a user client used by a user of the skincondition measuring device, connected to the skin condition measuringdevice so as to be able to transmit and receive data, and also connectedto a network to transmit and receive data; a data management serverconfigured to be capable of performing transmission and receipt of datawith the user client via the network; an analysis result outputting unitconfigured to receive analysis result data of the skin conditionobtained by analyzing measurement data measured by the skin conditionmeasuring device, output the analysis result data to be displayable onthe user client, and also output the analysis result data to be storablein the data management server; and a contractor client configured toperform transmission and receipt of data with the data management serverbased on a contract to acquire data from the data management server,wherein the user client includes: a user data transmitting unitconfigured to transmit user data input by the user and also includingpersonal information of the user and including a unique and noduplicative ID for each user to the data management server based on arequest from the data management server; a measurement data transmittingunit configured to transmit received measurement data and the client IDto the data management server when the measurement data measured by theskin condition measuring device is received from the skin conditionmeasuring device; and an analysis result display unit configured todisplay analysis result data when the analysis result data on themeasurement data is received from the analysis result outputting unit,wherein the data management server includes: a user data database inwhich user data including the client ID received from each of aplurality of user clients is registered; a measurement data database inwhich the measurement data received from the user client, analysisresult data received from the analysis result outputting unit,accompanying data excluding predetermined personal information from theuser data, and the client ID are registered correlated one another, andalso at least the measurement data and the analysis result data areregistered as a history based on an acquisition time of the data; acontractor database in which a contractor 1D set for each of thecontractors is registered; and a data providing unit configured to checka contractor ID input from the contractor client with the contractordatabase when a request is made from the contractor client to acquiredata registered in the measurement data database, and transmit the dataregistered in the measurement data database to a contractor client, andwherein the contractor client includes: a data requesting unitconfigured to transmit the contractor ID and also request dataregistered in the measurement data database to the data managementserver; and a receiving and storing unit configured to receive and storedata transmitted from the data management server based on a request ofthe data requesting unit.
 2. The management system for skin conditionmeasurement analysis information according to claim 1, wherein in themeasurement data database, the measurement data including a plurality ofdata blocks, the analysis result data including a plurality of datablocks, and the accompanying data including a plurality of data blocksare registered correlated one another, and also respective search itemsare set for at least a part of the data blocks, and the data of the datablocks set with the search items is narrowed down by inputtingconditions in the search items, and the data associated with thenarrowed-down data can be retrieved, in the contractor database, thesearch items are classified into a plurality of levels and registered asa search item for each search level, and also the data blocks to whichdata that can be output as a search result belongs is classified into aplurality of levels and registered as a data block for each accesslevel, and the search level and the access level are registeredcorrelated to the contractor ID, and the data management server searchesthe contractor database by using the contractor ID input from thecontractor client and extracts the search level and the access levelcorrelated to the contractor ID with respect to the contractor client,and includes: a search limiting unit configured to permit searching themeasurement data database by inputting a search condition from thecontractor client only with respect to the search item classified intothe extracted search level, and permit outputting, to the contractorclient, only the retrieved data belonging to the data block classifiedinto the extracted access level among the data blocks; and a searchdisplay unit configured to display, at the contractor client, the searchitems classified into the extracted search level based on the contractorID by the search limiting unit such that a search item to which a searchcondition is input can be selected from the search items, and displaysthe data blocks classified into the extracted access level based on thecontractor ID by the search limiting unit such that the data block towhich data that outputs a search result belongs can be selected from theblocks.
 3. The management system for skin condition measurement analysisinformation according to claim 1, wherein cosmetic data that is inputfrom the user client as the accompanying data and can specify a cosmeticused by the user of the skin condition measuring device is registeredcorrelated to a use time of the cosmetic in the measurement datadatabase, and analysis result data of the acquisition time correspondingto the use time correlated to the cosmetic data can be retrieved fromthe contractor client together with the cosmetic data.
 4. The managementsystem for skin condition measurement analysis information according toclaim 1, wherein in the measurement data database, cosmetic data that isreceived from the user client and also can specify a cosmetic used bythe user of the skin condition measuring device is registered correlatedto a use time of the cosmetic and the client ID input from the userclient, in addition to the analysis result data acquired for eachmeasurement along chronological order by the skin condition measuringdevice and also registered correlated to the acquisition time as thehistory based on the acquisition time of the analysis result data, theuser client is capable of searching the measurement data database forthe analysis result data and the cosmetic data correlated to the clientID input from the user client, in conformity with the acquisition timeof the analysis result data and the use time of the cosmetic, and theanalysis result data correlated to the retrieved acquisition time andthe cosmetic data correlated to the use time which is same as theacquisition time can be displayed in parallel, and also at least one ofa chronological display in which details of change in the analysisresult data along chronological order can be recognized by arranging inthe chronological order of the acquisition time and displaying theanalysis result data at the acquisition time included in a periodselected by the user; and a comparative display in which a difference ofthe analysis result data with the acquisition time can be compared bysimultaneously displaying the analysis result data at a plurality of theacquisition times selected by the user is displayable.
 5. A managementmethod for skin condition measurement analysis information executed in amanaging system for skin condition measurement analysis information thatincludes: a skin condition measuring device configured to measure skincondition; a user client used by a user of the skin condition measuringdevice, connected to the skin condition measuring device so as to beable to transmit and receive data, and also connected to a network so asto transmit and receive data; a data management server configured to becapable of performing transmission and receipt of data with the userclient via the network; an analysis result outputting unit configured toreceive analysis result data of the skin condition obtained by analyzingmeasurement data measured by the skin condition measuring device, outputthe analysis result data to be displayable on the user client, and alsooutput the analysis result data to be storable in the data managementserver; and a contractor client configured to perform transmission andreceipt of data with the data management server based on a contract toacquire data from the data management server, wherein the user clientexecutes: a user data transmitting step of transmitting user data inputby a user and also including personal information of a user andincluding a unique and no duplicative ID for each user to the datamanagement server based on a request from the data management server; ameasurement data transmitting step of transmitting received measurementdata and the client ID to the data management server when themeasurement data measured by the skin condition measuring device isreceived from the skin condition measuring device; and an analysisresult displaying step of displaying analysis result data when theanalysis result data on the measurement data is received from theanalysis result outputting unit, wherein the data management serverexecutes: a user data registering step of registering user data thatincluding the client ID received from each of a plurality of userclients in a user data database; a measurement data registering step ofregistering the measurement data received from the user client, analysisresult data received from the analysis result outputting unit and,accompanying data excluding predetermined personal information from theuser data, and the client ID in a measurement data database, correlatedone another, and also registering on the occasion of registration atleast the measurement data and the analysis result data as a historybased on an acquisition time of the data in the measurement datadatabase; and a data providing step of checking a contractor ID inputfrom the contractor client with the contractor database when acquisitionof data registered in the measurement data database is requested fromthe contractor client, and transmitting the data registered in themeasurement data database to a contractor client, and wherein thecontractor client executes: a data requesting step of transmitting thecontractor ID and also requesting the data management server for dataregistered in the measurement data database; and a receiving and storingstep of receiving and storing data transmitted from the data managementserver based on a request from the data requesting unit.
 6. Themanagement method for skin condition measurement analysis informationaccording to claim 5, wherein the data management server is capable of:narrowing down data of data blocks set with search items by inputtingconditions in the search items and retrieving the data associated withthe narrowed-down data from the measurement data database in which themeasurement data including the plurality of data block, the analysisresult data including the plurality of data blocks, and the accompanyingdata including the plurality of data blocks are registered correlatedone another, and also the respective search items are set for at least apart of the data blocks; and extracting a search level and an accesslevel correlated to the contractor ID by searching, using the contractorID input from the contractor client, the contractor database in whichthe search items are classified into a plurality of levels andregistered as a search item for each search level, and also the datablocks to which data that can be output as a search result belongs isclassified into a plurality of levels and registered as a data block foreach access level, and the search level and the access level areregistered correlated to the contractor ID, and wherein the datamanagement server executes: a search limiting step of permittingsearching the measurement data database by inputting a search conditionfrom the contractor client only for the search item classified into theextracted search level, and permitting outputting, to the contractorclient, only the retrieved data belonging to the data block classifiedinto the extracted access level among the data blocks; and a searchdisplaying step of displaying, on the contractor client, the searchitems classified into the extracted search level based on the contractorID by the search limiting unit such that a search item to which a searchcondition is input can be selected from the search items, and displayingthe data blocks classified into the extracted access level based on thecontractor ID by the search limiting unit such that a data block towhich data that outputs a search result belongs can be selected from theblocks.
 7. The management method for skin condition measurement analysisinformation according to claim 5, wherein the contractor client searchesthe measurement data database in which cosmetic data that is input fromthe user client as the accompanying data and can specify a cosmetic usedby the user of the skin condition measuring device is registeredcorrelated to a use time of the cosmetic, for analysis result data ofthe acquisition time corresponding to the use time correlated to thecosmetic data together with the cosmetic data.
 8. The management methodfor skin condition measurement analysis information according to claim5, wherein the user client executes: retrieving, from the measurementdata database in which cosmetic data that is received from the userclient and also can specify a cosmetic used by the user of the skincondition measuring device is registered correlated to a use time of thecosmetic and the client ID input from the user client, in addition tothe analysis result data acquired for each measurement alongchronological order by the skin condition measuring device and alsoregistered correlated to the acquisition time as the history based onthe acquisition time of the analysis result data, the cosmetic data andthe analysis result data correlated to the client ID input from the userclient, in conformity with the acquisition time of the analysis resultdata and the use time of the cosmetic; and displaying the analysisresult data correlated to the retrieved acquisition time and thecosmetic data correlated to the use time which is same as theacquisition time are displayed in parallel, and also displaying at leastone of a chronological display in which details of change in theanalysis result data along chronological order can be recognized byarranging in the chronological order of the acquisition time anddisplaying the analysis result data at the acquisition time included ina period selected by the user; and a comparative display in which adifference of the analysis result data with the acquisition time can becompared by simultaneous displaying the analysis result data at aplurality of the acquisition times selected by the user.